Lifeless
by Digitaldestiny360
Summary: What if Raditz had arrived on earth 6 months earlier, putting him there at the same time Goku and Piccolo fought Garlic Jr. It only takes one small change for the butterfly effect. Slight au
1. New Enemies

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z or any characters from canon

LIFELESS

Chapter 1 New Enemies

It started off as a normal day for the simple farmer. The heavy set man had been tending some of his crops near Spinach Wasteland, just as he had done every day for the last 30 plus years, when a whizzing sound had turned his attention towards the sky.

The scene he saw caused his eyes to widen considerably. After all, it's not every day that you see a spaceship rocketing through the sky; at least not by earth standards.

The farmer watched in a stunned awe as the ship passed by him before being rudely awakened from his stupor by the sound of said spacecraft impacting the ground with considerable force.

The somewhat dimwitted farmer turned and looked towards the crash site, staring blankly ahead, trying to comprehend what had just happened when a thought crossed his head. "If the ship landed there... Why that's where the rest of my crops are!' he muttered with a start before quickly turning and entering his beat up pick up truck and foolishly heading towards the site of the crash.

The farmer was closing in on the site after only a minute or so. This was partly due to the fact that the crash site was such a relatively short distance. The other contributing factor was the fact that the farmer ignored all speed laws and road laws and had literally just driven over all the hills in the surrounding area in an effort to get to the location as fast as possible. The farmer, of course, was barely even considering the possibility of a ticket at a time like this. Perhaps he should have been considering he didn't "technically" have a license. On the other hand, he'd never really worried. There may have been laws governing this area, but with the closest police station being a little over one hundred miles away, the farmer had never actually seen a cop car roaming these hills. Or really at all, considering he had only ever ventured through about a sixty mile radius his whole life.

He'd always planned on at least making it over to West City at least once before he died. Those darn capsule things had made his farming work a lot easier and he'd really like to thank whoever had made such an invention. Another thought that didn't cross the farmers mind at that time... was that this was his last day alive, and that he should have done his visiting years ago because it was too late now.

As he reached the site of the crash, the farmer brought his truck to a screeching halt, sliding forward a few feet more than he expected. For a brief second, a thought crossed his mind that he should get his brakes checked before that thought process was interrupted as he reached the crater and looked down.

At the bottom of the crater was a white spherical ball of some sort. The farmer squinted a few times trying to make out more details when the front of the ball suddenly opened up. The farmers eyes widened once again as the pods opening revealed a creature inside of it.

For a second, the farmer thought to rush down and see if the thing was okay, whatever it was. That thought was quickly dashed as the door opened up to reveal the creatures face.

A cold smirk graced the beings lips as he looked up, immediately making eye contact with the farmer, who froze under the glare he received. "Why are you alive?" a harsh voice came out from the man, or perhaps monster that had emerged from the pod. The farmer felt himself shudder at the threatening voice. His next thought was one of fear as the alien, for that was what the farmer was now sure the creature was, began to float into the air, arms still crossed.

With the new lighting the farmer could now see the alien a bit better. The monster had straight black hair, extending all the way down to the creature's knees. It was clad in some kind of armor, though he couldn't tell the fabric, not that he could have been able to tell the difference between fabrics to begin with, even if this wasn't some foreign, or dare I say alien material. The farmer's eyes were then drawn to the creature's hand as it began to move. The now terrified farmer took a few cautious steps back towards his truck, hoping he could reach it, and his shotgun inside, before this monster did something.

He was luckily granted those much desired seconds as the alien began to look around the surroundings. "Why is everything alive? Did Kakarot really fail such a simple mission?" The alien muttered to himself as he looked around.

It wasn't until he heard the almost universal sound of a gun being cocked back that Raditz turned to look at the human with an amused smirk on his face. "Y-You better get back monster. I've got a shotgun" the farmer yelled, pointing his loaded gun towards Raditz's armored chest.

"hn, and you really think you can stop me? Hah, that hilarious, let's see here" Raditz said with a laugh before beginning to fiddle with some sort of contraption over his eye. Numbers began to read out of the device in question before finally settling on a relatively low number. Raditz stared in stunned silence for about a second before breaking up laughing.

"A power level of five. Hah this won't even be fun" Raditz said as he straightened up, ending his laugh. He then proceeded to start walking towards the terrified native in his way. The human farmer shook in terror before pulling back on the trigger of the weapon. Instantly, to the human, and considerably slowly to the saiyan, the shells from the shotgun blasted forward. The farmer had barely even to realize he had pulled the trigger. Only the knockback of the gun helped him to realize what he had just done.

With a start he turned to look at the now dying creature before gasping. The creature appeared to be fine. His hand was clenched in front of his chest around where the shells should have hit him but there was no blood. In fact, the monster appeared to be smiling. The farmer then recognized the smile as a smirk before the creatures mouth opened. "Wrong move" Raditz said cockily before throwing something from his hand. The farmer never knew what hit him but he would have likely found it ironic if he could have seen what occurred. Raditz had easily caught all of the shotgun shells with one hand and then proceeded to return said shells to the farmer, albeit at a vastly superior speed. Those shells impacted with the weak human with enough force to blast him back into the front of his own truck, severely damaging the frame and engine. Not that such a thing mattered to the farmer anymore as he was dead on impact.

"hmph, waste of my time" Raditz said with a sneer. "Now then, there must be a reason Kakarot failed his mission. I know, i'll use my scouter to find him. It should be the highest power level on this planet" Raditz said aloud as he began to run through the functions on his scouter to increase the range. The scouter then began to beep as it took in an impressive, by earth standards power level. "Hn, still seems weak. I doubt it's Kakarot. But I might as well check" Raditz said with a shrug as he began to float into the air once again before blasting away in search of the power his scouter had picked up.

* * *

Tien was running through the city with a slightly annoyed expression on his face. Somehow, Launch had tricked him into helping her rob a bank. One minute he had been waiting outside of the grocery store she'd made him come with her to. The next, there had been a loud explosion and Launch had burst out of the bank on the other side of the street, catching him completely by surprise.

"When did she sneak over there" he had thought in astonishment before Launch had run past him, carrying four large bags, most likely filled with money. She had then immediately thrown two of the bags to Tien, who caught them on instinct before blinking in surprise as he realized what he had done.

Before he could say anything, the cops showed up, and; with him holding the bag of money, he was immediately labeled as a target. Tien immediately decided that being arrested as an accomplice would only cause problems for him , and so he turned to run, trying to get a glimpse of Launch, who had seemingly ditched him, most likely with the intent to return to their house in the mountains and rendezvous there.

Deciding that looking for Launch was a waste of time, Tien turned his efforts to escaping the notice of the cops. He quickly turned down a dark alleyway just out of sight of the cops chasing him before immediately taking off into the air, leaving the bags of money on the ground. He did this, not as a necessity to avoid being caught, but simply because he felt he had no need for money, especially the stolen kind. When he got back, he was going to have a long chat with Launch.

Still fuming over the events he had been thrust into that day, Tien began to fly over the mountains towards his home. He had only been moving for a few minutes when he felt an incredibly high power level closing in on him from his lower right side. Stopping where he was in the air, the triclops began looking around desperately looking for a way to escape the impossible power level that was approaching.

Before he could devise a plan, a purple blur of ki shot by him immediately followed by the sound of someone pulling to a halt. "Well, You're definitely not Kakarot. Bald, three eyes, I know, you must be a circus freak" Raditz said cockily as he examined the human in front of him. The power level coming from the human was just a little over 200. Not impressive in any right, but it was still the largest one he could find on this planet.

" Tell you what, put on a show and I might let you live" Raditz said as a twisted smirk enveloped his face. Tien stared at the man in front of him, trying to hold down his fear. He had fought against impossible odds before in the form of King Piccolo, but the creature in front of him was at least ten times as strong as that, and the speed he had approached at was incomparable to anything he had ever seen, even Goku. Suddenly, Tien noticed two distinct things of note.

The first was that he could feel the ki of both Goku and Piccolo together on the lookout, something which he had never expected considering Piccolo's animosity to not just Goku but Kami as well. The second thing Tien noticed, and perhaps the one that potentially scared him more, was the tail wrapped around the monsters waist. "It's just like the one Goku used to have" Tien thought in surprise and a certain degree of cold fear as he began to consider the words of the person in front of him.

Raditz's cocky smirk was slowly fading to one of annoyance as the human in front of him failed to respond to a single comment he had said. Instead, the human seemed to be staring off into space, as if he wasn't even there. Before he could open his mouth to express his anger, the triclops finally locked eyes with him. "Who is this Kakarot you mentioned?" Tien asked, staring warily at the saiyan, and hoping his suspicions weren't wrong. "Hn, well he's my brother. We sent him here when he was a baby to kill all of you pathetic earthlings so we could sell this rock. Looks like he failed... so I'm here to finish the job" Raditz said, watching with cruel glee as the bald man before him began to shake in what he considered to be fear.

In reality, Tien was caught up in too many emotions to experience simple fear. If Tien was understanding this monster right, there was a good chance that his friend Goku, the man who had defeated King Piccolo as a mere teen, and then went on to stop Piccolo's reincarnation, was actually an alien. And not just any alien, but an alien related to this one here in front of him.

Raditz stared in confusion as he began to realize that the human knew more than he was letting on. "You know something I don't" Raditz said before moving in and appearing inches away from the human, startling him. "Tell me" Raditz said threateningly as the human took a step back and moved his hands over his forehead.

Raditz paused as he considered the strange response before the human yelled Solar Flare and a blinding light covered his vision, causing him to scream out in pain as his sight was replaced by a blinding white light and a painful burning sensation. By the time he regained control of his eyesight, the human had disappeared.

"darn it, where did he go!" Raditz yelled angrily as he searched around, trying to find the power again with his scouter but to no luck. Snarling in rage, Raditz rushed off in a random direction, searching for the human that dared run from him.

A few miles below, hiding in a crevasse, a sweat soaked Tien shook with relief as the monster flew away. Knowing he had stood no chance in a battle against the monster, Tien had done the only thing he could and retreated. It left a bitter taste in his mouth but it was really the only option he could think of that didn't end in his brains forcibly removed from his body, or some other gruesome death.

As soon as the solar flare had gone off, Tien had dropped to the ground and quickly lowered his power level to as low as he could go in hopes of hiding from the alien. It appeared that luck was on his side as the alien soon rushed away from his location in frustration. After the initial sense of relief passed, Tien moved his mind over to other pressing issues, such as finding out why Goku and Piccolo were on the lookout. Before he could make a move from his spot though, his ki senses alerted him of something he had definitely not expected. The power level of Goku, which had been wavering for a few moments... suddenly ceased to exist.

~20 minutes earlier on Kami's Lookout~

Goku could barely believe it. The enemy in front of him, a self proclaimed demon... imp creature going by the name of Garlic Jr, which only made him want some garlic... with maybe some pork, and he couldn't forget the rice. "Oh wait, i'm fighting!" Goku thought with a sudden realization, barely managing to return his focus to the fight in time to avoid a slap from the small green imp.

"Hah hah. Don't you fools understand! I am Garlic Jr. It is my birth right to rule this world!" Garlic said a bit too cockily. "Hn, sorry, but I called dibs on this world long before you showed up you damn imp! And stop calling yourself a demon. I am the demon king and you sure as hell aren't one of my subjects" Piccolo said angrily, his aura flaring around him in tempo with his anger.

Garlic merely smiled back at him. "hah, you, a demon. Unlikely. If you truly were..." Garlic said before his entire body began to shake and shudder before suddenly expanding, increasing his mass at least 5 times over and revealing a creature more closely recognized as an ogre than an imp. "Then the makyo star would be strengthening you as well. And based on your poor appearance, I doubt that's the case" Garlic said with a devilish smile, basking in the new and improved power being generated by the makyo star. He felt as if he could do anything, as if he had no limits.

It was probably for the best that he hadn't fully mastered sensing power levels, or he might have realized that there was a creature currently on this planet that was 4 times as powerful as he.

Of course, even then, his confidence would not waver, and for good reason. For he, Garlic Jr, had successfully gathered the dragon balls and made his ultimate wish. He was immortal. It wouldn't matter if his opponent was 4 times, or 400 times stronger. Nothing could stop him now.

Goku and Piccolo, after watching the transformation with surprise, looked towards each other. "Hey Piccolo... I think, just this once, it would be a good idea for us to work together. He's a decent amount stronger than us right now... and I get the feeling he has some kind of secret technique planned" Goku said staring seriously at his long term rival. Piccolo merely smirked in response. "you know, I actually agree with you this time Goku. Just try not to get in my way" Piccolo said as he took a few steps closer to the opponent before stopping again. "oh, and this is temporary. As soon as we deal with the overgrown imp, you're next Goku" Piccolo said before dashing forward towards Garlic, who looked at Piccolo with some semblance of surprise at the speed he was approaching at.

Garlic was only given a second to be surprised before a brutal elbow connected with his chest, sending him flying back, and causing him to gasp in pain. Before his body could move more than a few feet, Piccolo's other arm stretched out, catching him by the arm and swinging him around, launching him in the other direction towards Goku, who had his hands cupped together at his side, a strange blue light being generated.

Garlic was given a bit less than a second to consider what the blue ball might be before Goku's arms were suddenly in front of his quickly approaching face. He heard Goku's voice screaming before the whole world went blue and an indescribable amount of pain overtook him. His body was shredded by a point blank Kamehameha wave.

Blood flowed freely from his wounds as he lay on the ground twitching in agony. For a second he wondered if the dragon had lied to him about his immortality. It certainly felt like he was dying. Then he began to feel a new sensation. His wounds, which had been devastating only a few seconds before, were rapidly closing up. With a smirk, he pulled himself to his feet, nary a scratch on him. He looked towards his opponents cockily while they both looked at him in horror.

"but... that was my full power. I thought we got him!" Goku said in shock. Piccolo just shook with a certain realization. "The dragonballs! I think he used them. The dragon was here when I arrived" Piccolo shouted out before grinding his teeth in anger.

Garlic only started to laugh were he was. "hah hah hah, that's right. You are standing in front of the Immortal Garlic Jr! Nothing you can do will stop me now, not that you could have to begin with" Garlic said before turning to look at Goku.

"So then, I think I'll start by killing you, Kami's prized pupil. Lets see how valuable you are when your insides are outside you!" Garlic said as he rushed towards Goku with a heavy right handed swing. Goku easily dodged the telegraphed move by ducking under it and kicking out Garlic Jr's legs, knocking him to the ground before jumping up and coming down with as much force as possible, slamming a damaging axe kick into Garlic Jr's chest.

Garlic coughed up blood from the strike, feeling one of his ribs crack from the strike. With a growl, he forced his arm up and caught Goku by the back of the head, pivoting from his spot on the ground, ignoring the sharp pain from his healing rib, and slamming Goku face first into the tiled ground of the lookout, once, twice, three times before getting to his feet and punting the barely conscious Goku across the lookout, watching him collide with one of the remaining buildings and slowly slide down the side before landing unceremoniously on the ground.

Piccolo only stared on in horror, watching how easily Goku had been stopped. Their power levels may have been close, but it was now very obvious that Garlic's increased muscle mass meant he could do a lot more damage per strike. For a second, Piccolo considered playing the same game and increasing his own mass to deal with Garlic's new form. Before he could commit to his plan however, he heard a cry of rage from the building where Goku had collapsed.

Standing there, glaring angrily at Garlic Jr, was a small boy with a tail. "Hm.. must be Goku's kid Piccolo thought before freezing on the spot as his ki sense picked up the power level of the boy. "It's stronger than all three of us combined. How is that possible!" Piccolo thought with a strong sense of surprise.

"You leave my daddy alone!" Gohan yelled angrily as he rushed towards the surprised Garlic Jr. Garlic was given no time at all to realize what had happened before the small boy was suddenly upon him, landing devastating strikes all over his chest. Each hit felt like a freight train being slammed into him. The power was unbelievable. But what was even more impressive was the speed. He hadn't even seen the boy move, and yet he was sure he'd been hit at least ten times, maybe more.

He desperately tried to regain the upper hand and locate the boy when a brutal uppercut sent him flying high into the air. Garlic's body continued it's trajectory straight up for about ten seconds before gravity began to pull his broken body back towards the ground. Meanwhile, Gohan's heavy breathing began to slow as his anger began to fade.

Piccolo, who had watched in awe up until this point suddenly realized something truly horrible. Gohan's power, which had briefly flown up to unimaginable heights was quickly dropping back down to a measly amount. At the same time this was happening, Garlic Jr's power, which had been nearly gone was now steadily rising back up, no doubt from his immortal body repairing itself.

"Damn it!" Piccolo thought as he ran towards where the boy was before turning his head straight up to see the falling Garlic Jr and releasing a powerful mouth blast straight into his falling body. The blast tore right through his stomach, leaving a large, and undoubtedly painful hole through Garlic, who's mouth opened wide in pain and surprise as his already weakened body took even more damage.

Piccolo stood there panting as he watched the body fall to the floor a few feet from him. He cautiously took a step towards Garlic before shuddering in fear as he watched the hole in his stomach slowly start to shrink and knit skin back together. "I've got to destroy him now... but I don't know if I have enough power left" Piccolo thought, his eyes briefly turning to the boy. "the brat could do it... if we could get that power back. But I think it's emotion driven. Without any training I doubt he could summon it on will." he thought with a mental sigh.

"I guess it's up to me" he thought before reaching a clawed hand down and placing it on top of Garlic Jr's head before starting to pull, with every intention of removing the monsters head from its body. With a squelching sound, the head finally gave way and Piccolo quickly blasted it with as much ki as he could spare, totally destroying the head before kicking the remnants of the body away from him and off the lookout. He approached the lookout edge and stared down towards where he had dropped the corpse. "hn, doesn't look like he's getting up from that one. So much for immortality" Piccolo thought before turning to look around the vicinity. He saw the boy from earlier crouching over his father, who appeared to be stirring a bit.

"Daddy!" Gohan said while shaking his father's shoulder trying his hardest to wake him. The big bad man was gone. But the green guy was still there and he was scared. He'd heard his mom talk about the evil Piccolo. He'd had nightmares about this guy since he could understand what a monster he was. And, well, replacing one monster with another still left a monster on the lookout. A monster that had just ripped someones head off and was now looking their way. "DADDY HELP!" Gohan yelled at his father.

Goku's body rustled for a second before his eyes slowly opened looking towards Gohan with surprise. "Gohan? What's wrong?" he asked as he took a look around, trying to gather an idea of what had happened. His head was pounding and his body felt terrible.

"Did I really go down that quickly?" Goku thought with a sense of surprise. He could barely remember fighting. One second he had been knocking Garlic to the ground, the next, he had felt a hand on the back of his head and then the ground had gotten really close really fast and everything had gone dark.

Now though, it seemed like the fight was over. Off in the distance he saw Piccolo staggering towards them, looking a bit worse for wear but otherwise fine. With a grunt of effort, he pushed himself to his feet. "Gohan, go wait inside" he said with a tired voice, expressing more fatigue than he would have liked considering he was unsure of Piccolo's intentions.

When he saw Piccolo's smirk spread across his face at his worn out comment his heart skipped a beat. "I don't know if I can fight him right now. We're both pretty low on ki, but i've taken way more damage than him." Goku thought as he stood there staring intently back at Piccolo, who continued his approach, this time with a bit more confidence.

"But daddy, I want to stay with you!" Gohan complained, pulling on his pant leg, tears forming in his eyes. "Gohan, go inside NOW!" Goku said with a bit more force than he had intended.

Gohan looked startled for a second. His father had never raised his voice to him before. For a second he wanted to ask his father what was wrong, but a second later, his young, but still intelligent mind came up with the answer. With a nod, he quickly rushed inside the crumbling temple, taking care not to cause the place to collapse on top of him.

"Piccolo... what are you planning?" Goku said seriously as his body slowly slid into a fighting stance. Piccolo only grinned back. "It looks to me like you already know. I told you, once I killed that imp you would be next" Piccolo said before dashing forwards towards Goku.

Goku waited patiently for the strike to come, watching Piccolo's left arm swinging for the right side of his rib cage. He quickly pivoted his body in order to block the strike, his right arm holding the attack in place before he threw a quick jab with his left to try to force Piccolo back.

When he saw the glimpse of a smirk on Piccolo's face, he knew he had made a mistake. Piccolo easily leaned out of the way of the jab before pulling Goku forward off his base and driving up a brutal knee strike into Goku's ribs, causing the already bruised ribs to start to crack. Goku spat a small amount of blood as the strike impacted, his body bent forward over the devastating knee before he felt both of Piccolo's hands strike the back of his neck with monumental force, slamming his injured body back into the tile.

He lay there woozily for a second before quickly rolling to the side, barely avoiding the curb stomp that was set to fall on his head. Piccolo frowned for a second seeing his attack had missed before swinging a roundhouse kick towards the still recovering Goku.

Goku quickly brought his arms up in a block to hold off the attack, barely holding back the force of the strike before pushing back with as much force as possible, knocking Piccolo back a step as he was forced to rebalance his leg. Goku continued with a right hook that impacted on the side of Piccolo's face, knocking him back another step before Goku's own roundhouse came in, hitting the already stunned Piccolo across the lookout. Goku wasted no time in pursuing his opponent, intent on finishing the fight before he took any more damage.

He got within two feet of Piccolo's airborne body before Piccolo's hand suddenly reached down and planted itself on the floor. Piccolo used his new found balance to pivot his body around Goku and land a powerful thrust kick to the side of a surprised Goku's head. Goku's body was launched back across the lookout, towards where he had been only a few seconds earlier.

Piccolo considered rushing towards Goku to finish the job, but the look of determination still visible on Goku's face gave him pause. That was probably for the best in his case as Goku quickly caught his balance and backflipped back into a standing position, sliding back into a fighting stance.

Piccolo gave a smirk towards his enemy, enjoying the battle. Goku returned his own smirk. "You've gotten even stronger than the last time we fought" Goku said with a light smile. Piccolo only nodded back. "the same could be said of you. It's too bad you'll be dead after today. I could get used to fighting you" Piccolo said before launching forward towards Goku again.

Goku mirrored his movement and the two were set to clash in the center of the lookout when the unexpected happened.

Both fighters suddenly were stopped in place as a large arm slammed into each of their chest, causing them to both gasp in pain. The two fighters looked up from their new position in surprise before their expression turned to one of fear. Standing in between them, with both arms out, one planted in each of their chests, was a perfectly healed Garlic Jr.

"But.. how" Piccolo managed to stutter out. "hah, what part of immortal don't you understand?" Garlic said with a smirk towards Piccolo before his face turned to one of anger. "But what you did still hurt and I won't forgive you for that" Garlic said as his giant hands closed around the center of Goku and Piccolo's torso and he slammed the two together, causing a shockwave to form from the impact before tossing the damaged bodies straight up into the air and throwing a large ki blast up into the air which exploded in between the two fighters.

The blast burned a brilliant red before the shockwave from the blast separated the two fighters. Piccolo was revealed to have taken the worst hit, with half his body missing and a dangerous amount of blood flowing from the injuries. Goku on the other hand, appeared to have avoided most of the explosion. His arms were crossed in an x shape in front of him, and though his arms were now covered in burns, he seemed to be very much alive.

His body soon landed on the ground where he rolled twice before landing stomach first at the edge of the lookout, on of his arms dangling over the side of the lookout. "heh heh, wow that was close" Goku said with a half hearted smile, peering over the ledge and looking down. His mind quickly turned back to the battle at hand and he tensed his damaged body to try to return back to the fight. Before he could stand though he heard a yell that nearly caused his heart to stop.

"DADDY!" Gohan yelled as he rushed into the fight once again. This time, Garlic Jr was a bit more prepared. Gohan's speed was still too much for him to deal with through normal means, but with the gravitational pull of the dead zone, he could stop this brat in his tracks. With a smirk, Garlic flared his aura up before opening up the dead zone and creating a barrier around himself in order to not be pulled in.

He watched with satisfaction as the small boy's body phased into existence a few feet from him, the angry look on his face turning to one of fear as the gate began to pull him in. "Hah hah. There is no stopping the dead zone you foolish boy!" Garlic said as he turned to destroy the boy, only to see a flash of orange as Goku's body briefly appeared in front of Gohan before grabbing him and pulling him away from the temple.

"Gohan, are you alright?" Goku asked with concern, looking towards his son, who was currently shaking in his arms. "Daddy" Gohan cried out as he tried to grab onto his father, desperate for comfort. Goku's face turned to a smile when he saw his son was alright. "Thank Kami you're alright. Chi Chi would have killed me for sure heh heh" Goku said before setting his son down on the ground. " I need you to do something very important right now..." Goku said, his voice turning serious again.

Gohan could only nod, his young mind barely able to grasp the current situation. " I need you to go as far into the temple as you can... and don't come out, no matter what happens, you understand me Gohan?" His father said with the most serious expression he had ever seen.

Gohan quickly took his father's advice and rushed into the temple. Rather than rushing to the back like he had been told though, he stayed near the entrance, watching the battle with fearful eyes. This action went unnoticed by Goku, but it certainly didn't go unnoticed by Garlic Jr who smirked before charging up his strongest attack. A giant ki blast began to form in front of his hand, pointed towards Goku. At the last second, before firing however, his smirk widened to encompass his whole face and he turned his arm to fire towards Gohan.

Goku watched the new trajectory with a look of confusion before a feeling of horror overtook him. Standing at the edge of the doorway, Gohan was frozen in place staring his death in the face. Goku did the only thing he could and rushed forward, barely managing to reach Gohan in time to push him out of the way.

For a second, his mind was filled with relief before that relief was replaced with a sense of immeasurable pain as the attack ripped into his side and tore all the way through. His torso fell forward while his legs, or what was left of them, pretty much the knees down fell back. Goku's throat tensed to scream out in pain before a bubbling of blood stopped the yell from forming and then his consciousness, and his very life, faded away.

Gohan watched in horror as he watched his father die in front of him. He stared on not fully comprehending what had happened when his father's body began to fade away. This snapped Gohan out of his trance and he quickly rushed forward, trying to reach for his fathers disappearing form but he was too late.

His father's body was gone. His father was gone. Dead. Because of him. Because he hadn't hidden as well as he was supposed to. A red hot anger was building inside the boy as his teeth clenched together and his hands closed into fists, drawing a bit of blood as his nails dug into his skin. That was when he heard the laughing. The laughing of the monster that had taken his father from him. Garlic Jr.

With a roar, Gohan's power began to flare higher and higher. In seconds it had already passed the level he had managed before and it continued to climb. Garlic's face, which had been covered by a triumphant smirk a second before was now covered in an expression of fear. He took a step back before nearly losing his balance as he felt the pull of his dead zone.

His eyes briefly turned to look at his pocket dimension. That time was all it took for things to go horribly wrong for him. If the boy had been fast before, now he was inconceivable. Garlic felt a single fist planted into his face and things went black for a split second. Gohan tried to rush forward towards his now airborne opponent, intent on avenging his father when a dark green clawed hand suddenly caught his arm. He turned angrily, smashing his small fist onto the arm and ignoring the shout of pain as said arm broke off and fell to the ground, spurting purple liquid blood over him before turning to strike again at Garlic before blinking.

Garlic Jr's body, no longer held down by the strength of Garlic himself, had been picked up by the gravitational pull of his own dead zone. He was only inches away from it when his eyes fluttered open. He had a split second to wonder what had happened when he felt his bottom half pulled into the dead zone. He screamed in anger, trying with all his might to break free. But it was far too late. A second later, his body had been pulled in and the gate closed behind him, leaving him trapped.

With the gate gone, the sky over the lookout began to clear up. Gohan looked around in confusion, his anger quickly leaving him before quickly being replaced with exhaustion. Before he could figure out what had happened, his body slumped over, exhaustion taking control as he passed out onto the ruined tiles of the lookout.

Piccolo slowly walked forward, nursing his wounded arm as he slowly gathered the ki needed to regenerate it. "This boy did what neither of us could do..." Piccolo thought as he stared down at the son of his worst enemy, or rather, former enemy, considering Goku's death only minutes before.

To Piccolo, it was bitter sweet at best. His rival was gone, and the immortal imp was gone, leaving him in a position to take his rightful place as ruler... but it felt like he had been cheated out of his victory. Goku had fallen to a surprise attack, one that hadn't been his. And Garlic had been locked away in his own attack, by the actions of a toddler's temper tantrum.

With a sneer, Piccolo looked down at the boy before gathering energy to end the child's life. "if he's this strong, now, I definitely shouldn't wait for him to get any stronger" Piccolo reasoned to himself before hearing movement to his left, with a glance he turned to see Kami struggling towards them, relying heavily on his cane for support.

"Wait Piccolo" Kami said with a look of fear and barely disguised disgust at the actions of his darker half. "hn, and why should I old man? I'm definitely not going to turn a blind eye to a threat just because it's a kid." Piccolo said with a sneer, his hand still gathering ki for his attack.

"Please... extend your senses to the world below. There is more going on then you realize." Kami said with a gasp of breath, over exerted from even reaching the battle from where he had lied before in the temple ruins. Piccolo stopped with a curious look before closing his eyes, his ears twitching as he extended his senses to feel out what the old man had meant. That was when he felt it. A power level at least three times his own.

It was weaker then what the boy had managed to put out, but it was definitely enough to cause problems for him. "damn. This isn't good" he thought before sensing something else.

Whoever this person was, he wasn't alone. A couple other power levels, all well below his, but significant nonetheless were near him. "looks like this guy is distracted... I better deal with this while I have the chance" Piccolo thought as his hand closed, dispersing the ki blast.

"i'll be back for the boy. He better still be here when I get back or your precious earthlings will pay the price in blood" Piccolo growled out before turning and dashing off the lookout. He dove straight down off the lookout for a few hundred feet before stopping at the top of a tower covered in indian paintings.

"That cat had better be able to help me" Piccolo muttered as he stepped into the tower, ignoring the fat samurai who was currently hiding inside of a large pot, his butt facing up and shaking in fear. "Cat. Give me a senzu bean... NOW!" Piccolo demanded of the large white cat named Korin, of whom this tower was named after. Korin looked hesitant for a second but a second growl from Piccolo quickly changed his mind.

"I only have two ready" Korin said with a decent amount of fear. He was strong, but Piccolo was definitely out of his league. "Hn, well I only need one. But give me both and I won't kill you, how's that?" Piccolo said with a smirk, enjoying the fear radiating off the cat. "Here" Korin said as he tossed the two beans to Piccolo, who easily caught them before launching away from the lookout. After a few seconds of flying, he ate one of the beans, feeling his power flare back to max, plus a small boost from the fight. It was still nowhere near enough to beat this new opponent in a one on one fight, but it might be enough if he played his cards right.

~Back with Raditz~

There was something wrong with his scouter. There had to be. It was the only thing that made any sense. Power levels kept flashing across it that made no sense. There was one that had been around 400. Another had briefly passed his own level before disappearing. Not long after that, his scouter had picked up a power level more than twice his own. As disconcerting as this all was, the worst part was that, for whatever reason, his scouter couldn't find the location. The power levels appeared to be coming out of nowhere.

With a scowl, Raditz flipped his scouter off. "I'm definitely going to need a new one of these" he muttered with a sigh as he continued to float there. "It's no wonder Kakarot failed. There is something seriously wrong with this planet. " Raditz said while taking a deep breath and calming his nerves. With a sigh, he flipped his scouter back on, watching with slight surprise as it picked up three power levels all lower than 200 approaching him from the south.

"Hey Tien... is this guy really that strong?" Yamcha said with a cocky laugh, following behind Tien in the air, with Krillin on his right flank. "Unbelievably so" Tien said, grinding his teeth together.

After his first encounter with the alien, he had quickly headed to Kame house to alert the others. He had found Krillin and Yamcha there, 'training' on the island with Master Roshi and one of his calisthenics video's. When he dropped in front of them all, the look of surprise said it all. They had no idea anything had happened. He quickly went to work on filling them in on everything he knew.

There was of course some debate about whether Goku was alright on the lookout, but Tien quickly pointed out that that wasn't their first issue. He also purposefully neglected to share his fear that this monster was somehow related to Goku.

Not long after that, himself, Krillin and Yamcha had left the island, intent on stopping the alien by any means necessary... or die trying. Now, they were within a few miles of the monster and he was surprised to sense that Raditz was no longer moving and had stopped in a field. "um... not to be a coward or anything but if this guy is really that strong shouldn't we wait for Goku or something?" Krillin spoke up.

"Goku might be dead" Tien said harshly. "Waiting for him isn't going to do us any good. It's up to us to stop this guy." Tien said. "Hey, well it'll be fine. I mean, the three of us could probably beat King Piccolo three times over. There's no way this guy's as strong as that" Yamcha said, sounding annoyingly confident. Tien merely rolled his eyes at that. "Just try not to get yourself killed..." Tien said as they passed over a small mountain and saw Raditz down on the ground, his arms crossed.

"... so it's the circus freak again" Raditz said with a smirk as the three humans landed in front of him. "and he brought the rest of the circus" he said with a laugh, looking at the other two humans.

"Ya... it's me again... and this time i'm not running" Tien said as he entered a fighting stance. "You know, i'm only here for Kakarot, but if you want to get in my way..." Raditz sneered, "Well that's gotta be the stupidest decision of your life. Which, by the way, just got a lot shorter!" Raditz said as he flared his aura, enjoying the looks of fear that covered the two bald one's faces. "Oh man. I think this was a bad idea!" Krillin said in fear as he was nearly pushed back by the aura alone.

"We've got to be careful. As long as we all fight together we might have a chance!" Tien said, sounding a lot more confident than he felt. "We've only got one shot! Here we go!"

And there is chapter one of my first DBZ fanfic and my first story in about 7 years. I will say this. I've got plans for this story up to the buu saga. Still some kinks to work out but the general idea is there and, hopefully with some support, i'll make it far enough to make my twists and turns come out. I'm a big fan of DBZ and an equal fan of, well, fanfics. I've read all the top stories on the site and it's really motivated me to try my hand at writing one of my own.

So first thng I want to cover is the reason why Raditz didn't find Goku's power level. Kami's lookout is supposed to be a big secret. It's been there for 1000's of years and no one has known about it. I like to think this is because It has a magical property to it. It can't be sensed through normal means, whether that be through ki sense or scouter. With all the strongest power levels currently hidden from his scouter, the next best option was Tien.

I will do power levels, at least up through the Frieza saga. It gets harder to keep up with by the time Cell comes around, but thats a while away. Lets start with these

Power Levels

Farmer: 5

Raditz: 1200

Tien: 208

Garlic (untransformed): 150

Garlic (transformed): 400

Goku: 310

Piccolo: 290

Gohan: 20

Gohan (angry): 1200

Gohan (enraged): 2500

Krillin: 198

Yamcha: 172

Also, if you have any questions while reading you can always message me or review, and i'll answer.


	2. Untouchable?

Lifeless

Chapter 2 Untouchable?

Tien rushed forward, along with his two human allies. There was a strong sense of anxiety in the pit of his stomach, considering the not so insignificant difference in their power levels. But Tien was determined to defeat this monster and protect the planet at any means necessary.

He hoped that, with all three of them there, their team work might give them a fighting chance. As he reached his enemy, he started off with a flying knee strike aimed right for Raditz's chin. Raditz smirk turned into a grin as he took an unorthodox, but all too effective response considering the vast power difference. He brought his chin down onto Tien's knee with, shattering the bone from the impact.

Tien could only roll away, howling in pain. Yamcha was the next to reach the saiyan warrior. He moved in with his Wolf Fang Fist prepped and ready to go. Raditz, after dodging the first strike, began to catch onto the pattern of the attack and changed from evading to merely letting the powerless strikes land on his armor, waiting for the perfect opportunity to put his opponent in his place.

When Yamcha came forward to finish off his strike with a double handed slash, Raditz easily sidestepped him before sending a brutal elbow to the back of his neck. A loud snap was heard and then Yamcha slumped to the ground, unmoving.

"oh, he's dead already. I was just getting warmed up!" Raditz said with a grin. And that was the truth. He'd only meant to knock the weakling to the ground and humiliate him a bit. Maybe add a few more scars to the bandits face before sending him straight to hell. Unfortunately, he was never the best at holding back.

"Yamcha!" he heard yelled from behind him, breaking his train of thought and returning him to the battle at hand. He quickly turned around to see a blue light covering his vision. His first thought was that this was another of those blinding lights the circus freak had used on him before. Believing it to be only a light show, Raditz moved his arm over his eyes and closed them. It was with a great deal of surprise that he realized his error when the blue blast impacted his chest, sending him flying back.

The attack itself burned, if only by the slightest bit. There was a distinct tingling of energy trying to burn it's way through his armor and then there was the feeling of his back impacting a nearby mountain, smashing straight through it and causing it to collapse on top of himself.

Krillin stood there, breathing heavily, his hands still stretched out from firing his Kamehameha blast. "Did, did we get him?" Krillin asked, hesitant but still excited over the potential victory. "Not yet..." Tien said, floating in the air to avoid putting any pressure on his leg. "We definitely caught him off guard with that though..." Tien said, focusing on the ki signature of Raditz, which was quickly growing back to it's full height.

"We need to fight smart. Now's the time to pull out every trick you've got" Tien said while charging his ki for one of his many signature moves. "Four witches technique!" Tien said with a certain amount of force as two extra arms popped out his sides.

Krillin simply nodded as he too began to hover into the air. "Hey Tien... so i've been working on a new move" Krillin said with a bit of hesitancy. "I don't know if it's ready for battle yet, but it'd be really nice if I could pull it off you know" Krillin said, his words light, but his tone heavy. Tien nodded at him. "If you think it'll help i'll buy you all the time you need" Tien said with a grim voice as he charged forward towards the collapsed mountain just as Raditz burst out with a wave of ki.

Raditz's face was tensed into a display of rage at being tricked by the earthlings. He wanted nothing more than to tear them all limb from limb. He turned his sights towards the approaching three eyed human and decided he'd start with his limbs. All six of them. Wait.. six? The thought crossed his mind for a second before the fighter was upon him, striking from a multitude of different angles.

Raditz was forced on the defensive as the strikes kept coming. He could do nothing but block as the strikes continued to hit him from the front and side. Every time he moved to block one punch, another three would slip by. The strikes were by no means debilitating but they sure as hell were distracting. It was like someone was pelting him with rocks. He didn't like having rocks thrown at him. With a roar, he unleashed a wave of ki around him, pushing the human away, rolling head over heels in the air. He moved to give chase, and was within a few feet of the human, ready to end him when he noticed that two of the hands had been placed on the humans head. "That stance looks familiar" Raditz thought, trying to decipher the movement, which looked even stranger than usual do to the extra pair of arms sticking out of his side. He had almost figured it out when Tien shouted Solar Flare and once more everything was a blur. "Twice with the same move! I'm going to make him suffer for this!" Raditz thought in his head, inwardly raving while trying his best to rub his eyes out.

After about twenty seconds, some semblance of vision returned to him. He looked around, staring at the human in confusion. His sight must not be as restored as he thought. There were now four of the human, all at different corners above him, their arms in a diamond shape in front of their chest, all glowing. He rubbed his eyes once more, trying to get his vision to go back to normal. It was with a detached sense of awe that he realized that even though his sight was back, the copies weren't fading away. It was when they all opened their mouths and yelled, their voices echoing from all corners around him he really began to worry.

"Neo Tri-beam!" Tien yelled, with each of his clones pushing out two each due to the total of eight arms between them all. When the attack impacted the saiyan, there was a split second pause in which he feared it wasn't going to be enough. Then the saiyan's body was caught by the pushing force of the attack, slamming him deep into the ground.

Tien continued to fire for as long as he could, each strike lowering his ki, as well as his life force, significantly. After the first strike, his four witches technique faded away. The second strike, now only being four tri-beams, was a bit weaker, but the force was still enough to hold the saiyan down.

From there, the multi-form technique began to fail. Tien managed two more blasts before it was only him floating there in the air, doused in an unhealthy amount of sweat. He gathered energy for one more blast before firing straight down into the now incredibly deep hole.

The force was lowered immensely, and the ki he had left to put into it was severely lacking. Tien realized this with a sense of fear as the saiyan charged up through the final Tri-beam, pushing against the forceful, life based attack and moving straight towards the exhausted Tien, who had already started to fall forwards, completely exhausted from using the Tri-beam in such succession, especially combined with his other techniques. He had always theorized that he could pull such a move off, but to actually do it; well it was way more than he had bargained for. He could already feel his body shutting down on him and it looked like the saiyan was still ok, albeit a bit beaten up.

Raditz's armor was falling apart, the shoulder guards had already been broken off, and the part guarding his legs had been shattered, leaving only a few jagged tips hanging from behind him. There was some blood on his arms and legs, and his face looked bruised but despite all that, based on the speed he was moving towards Tien, he seemed to be okay.

"This guy's a monster" Tien thought as his eyes closed and his consciousness faded away.

Raditz was beyond livid. Whatever that human had done had actually hurt! It wasn't life threatening but it had been beyond irritating. No matter how hard he had pushed back, the blast had held him down, burning against him and pushing him deeper into the earth's crust. Every time he had almost managed to break out, another wave had pushed him further down. Just when he was starting to fear it was never going to end, the pressure had lightened, and with a roar of energy, he had jetted back up, heading straight towards the circus freak that had dared to actually hurt him, a saiyan elite. He looked on with satisfaction as he saw the human collapse from over extending himself. His rage encompassed all his thought as he moved in for the kill when he heard a voice off in the distance.

Krillin had watched in amazement when Tien pushed the monster down into the earth. He had almost thought it was over when he noticed how much Tien's Ki was fluctuating. "It might not be enough" he thought as he hurriedly gathered the technique for his move, his palm pointed towards the sky.

He had barely gathered enough when he saw the Saiyan rush out of the tri-beam, on a direct collision course with Tien. "Please reach him first!" Krillin thought as he threw his arm forward, a bright yellow spinning disc of ki heading up towards where he hoped the Saiyan would be.

Raditz, in his blind rage, didn't even notice the attack until the very last second, and by then it was too late. He managed to turn his body enough to not be cut in half but the disc of energy did connect with his left arm, right above the elbow, and cut straight through it before slicing across his stomach, causing a deep gash to appear there as well.

Raditz dumbly stared at the stump where his arm had been, at a loss for what had happened before the pain caught up to him and he let out an ear piercing scream of pain.

Krillin could only stare up at the battle with a morbid fascination. "Did, did I really do that?" he thought, starting to cheer before the saiyan's sights turned to him. "You worthless sack of shit!" Raditz screamed out, his anger at being humiliated currently outweighing the pain of losing his arm. He rushed forward, intent on ending the human's life when the human placed his hands on his head. "Not this again!" Raditz briefly thought before once again a blinding light covered his vision.

He moved to wipe his eyes again, instinctively raising his left arm, only to splash himself in the face with his own blood. With a cry of rage, Raditz unleashed as much ki as he could before gathering energy into his one remaining arm, and firing his blast forward. "Saturday Crush!" he yelled in blind rage, quite literally. He didn't care if he missed or not. Hopefully the explosion would take care of the earthling, and if not, well, he really needed to destroy something right now anyways.

Krillin barely managed to fly up in time, seeing the massive blast fly just under his feet and continue forward for miles before impacting a mountain in the back ground and completely eviscerating it.

"Yeesh, that could've been me" Krillin thought with a sense of panic as he stared down at Raditz. "My destructo disc worked... but I don't think he's gonna let me charge up another one" Krillin thought as he stared down, anxious as to what he could possibly do next.

Before he could formulate a plan, Raditz's now blood covered eyes turned up to where he was and, with a growl, Raditz rushed forward. "Oh no!" Krillin thought in fear as he quickly dropped down to the ground, moving his arms forward to try to use his solar flare again.

Before he could do so, Raditz disappeared from his sight and then he felt a fist slam onto the top of his head and then an indescribable grip was placed on his right arm, shattering his wrist and forearm in one movement. Krillin yelled in pain before turning and looking over his shoulder, a wave of terror passing across his features as he saw a blood covered Raditz holding him on place. "No more tricks midget. I'm going to rip your arms off, one joint at a time and make you suffer for your actions!" Raditz yelled as his grip on Krillin's already shredded arm tightened even more.

Krillin could only let out another yell as he struggled in vain to pull away. He had almost given up all hope when he caught sight of the furry brown tail looped around Raditz's waist. Krillin's mind came to a stop as he stared at it. "Just like Goku's" he thought as a wave of confusion washed over him. "So he's here for this Kakarot guy. If he meant Goku then... oh god. If he's here for Goku" his mind began, scrambling to connect the two totally different people in his mind. Nothing was making any sense, but his eyes were still drawn to the tail, as if trying to remember something important.

It was then that his thoughts returned back to the 21st world martial arts tournament where Jackie Chun had fought against Goku in the finals and had pulled on his tail. He remembered how Goku's entire body had frozen up, as if he'd been paralyzed. At the time, he'd thought it a cheap move. Now though, he could only hope it would work the same.

He quickly reached out with his free left arm and grabbed onto Raditz's tail with as much force as he could muster. Raditz's body immediately spasmed before releasing his own grip on Krillin's arm and twitching as he tried to regain control of his body. "No! How dare you touch my tail!" Raditz yelled angrily, trying, without any real success to pull away from the human that had somehow found his greatest weakness.

"Heh heh. How lucky" Krillin muttered out, taking a deep breath while still holding onto the tail, turning his body a bit to get a better grip. "It's just like with Goku after all" he said with a sigh of relief. "Who the hell is Goku? Let go of my tail so I can skin you alive!" Raditz yelled angrily as he tried to pull away. "Well, I could be wrong... but I think Goku is this Kakarot guy you keep yelling about. He's also my best friend" Krillin said, staring at the saiyan with a hard expression.

Raditz stared at him in confusion before cracking up laughing. "Hah, why would Kakarot make friends with any of you? He was sent here to destroy everyone on this planet and sell it for a profit." Raditz said, staring down at the human, a wave of nausea passing over him as his adrenaline started to slow due to the lapse in combat and the pain of losing an arm began to catch up to him.

"I need to break away soon or I might just die to these pathetic humans." Raditz thought, a grimace crossing his face as he considered just how much shame he'd bring to his prince if he fell in combat to someone not even a fraction of his power. "No, i"m pretty sure they're the same guy" Krillin said. "he used to have a tail just like yours." Raditz listened on, surprise etched across his features as he considered the possibility.

"No! I can't believe my brother would choose humanity over his own saiyan heritage!" Raditz said. Krillin very nearly lost his grip on Raditz's tail at hearing the statement proclaiming the relationship between the two. For a split second, Raditz was free and he quickly planted a devastating knee into Krillin's stomach, shattering multiple ribs and instantly causing some internal bleeding.

Krillin's grip on Radtiz's tail quickly resumed before he could be hit again, but the damage had been done. His grip was wavering and Krillin's lungs had already started to fill with blood. He was doing all he could just to hold onto the tail, let alone finish him off.

"Damn it. I think I blew it" Krillin thought shamefully, struggling to hold onto Raditz, who had managed to turn his body in such a way that Krillin's grip was now fighting against the gravity that was trying to pull Raditz's paralyzed body forward and away from Krillin's grip. He struggled for a few more seconds before beginning to lose control, the tail slowly sliding down his hand and away from him.

Raditz could only smile in triumph. "Just a few more seconds and i'll be free" he thought, ignoring his own fading vision as he body screamed at him to stop, ignoring the pull on his tail that he was creating by falling the way he was.

The second his tail was released, he staggered back to a standing position and was tensed to turn when an indescribable pain pushed straight through his stomach and pierced out of his back. He fell backwards in a stupor, sliding down the crater and finally coming to a halt in front of his ship. "i'm gonna die here" he thought as blood flowed from his many life threatening injuries. He barely noticed the fact that his scouter had fallen off of him during the crash.

He could already feel his body giving up on him, and he was all too ready to give up as well when a thought crossed his mind. "I can't die against a bunch of stupid humans! I'm one of the last saiyans and we're a warrior race! It would be dishonorable to die here, bleeding on the ground. If I can just..." Raditz thought as he pushed himself to his side before pushing a few buttons on his ship, watching with relief as the door opened up and he began to crawl inside.

It took nearly a minute, but he managed to pull himself inside and had only just closed the door and turned on the life support system when a tall green man came into view at the top of the crater. "A namekian!" he thought with surprise before starting to laugh, only to be stopped painfully as his body shuddered with the motion. "He must have been the one to hit me. At least it wasn't a human" he thought as he pushed the last button needed to make the ship take off and his pod shot up into the air.

Piccolo could only stare in anger as he saw the pod start to take off. His attack had definitely connected but luck just wasn't on his side. The attack had knocked the alien to the ground next to his ship and it looked like he had managed to pull enough energy out to get inside and take off.

Despite the condition of the alien, there was little he could do to stop the ascent as the pod blasted off at incredible speeds. He briefly considered trying to fly after it, but based on it's trajectory, it was heading off planet, and once it left the atmosphere, which he felt would only take seconds based on it's acceleration, he would be unable to follow.

Instead he merely glared to the side, seeing the small bald human that was always following Goku around. "hn. Looks like he's on death's door. Maybe I should finish him off" he thought before his ears twitched, picking up a muffled voice from somewhere nearby. "What the hell is going on Raditz? My scouter says your ship just left the planet. Where the hell do you think you're going?" an angry voice sounded.

Piccolo looked around in confusion before his eyes settled on the eye piece that the alien had been wearing. Piccolo walked forward before calmly picking up the item. "You better not be running away. If you are, just know that i'll be killing you for your cowardice when you get back. Hah, just to be fair, I'll let Nappa do it. His foot's just big enough to crush your head in one go hah hah hah" A laugh came through from the scouter.

Piccolo stared at the device in hand for a few seconds, pondering what he should do with it when he felt a slight power level approaching. "Tien!" he heard yelled as a small white... thing came flying down. Now that he thought about it, it looked kind of familiar. He was sure he saw it back at the world tournament.

The one that had been hanging around the three eyed human... who it appeared was also there, laying face down on his stomach. "hn, it looks like all my enemies killed themselves trying to fight each other. That'll make world domination all that much easier" Piccolo thought as a sadistic smirk covered his face. It was then that the voice from the scouter resumed. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter what you do. We'll be on this planet Earth in one year, and then Nappa and I will finish whatever job you've failed so horribly on. Then we will kill you for your incompetence" the voice said through the scouter, stopping Piccolo in his tracks.

"They're coming here?!" he thought as his mind began to race. It was obvious that the last alien was this guys subordinate and if that was the case it was likely that he was stronger than Raditz. It also sounded like this other Nappa fellow was also stronger than Raditz, based on the threats heading his way. "two more fighters, both stronger than him. There's no way I can win this alone... damn it. I'm going to need help" he thought angrily.

With a glare, he turned to the scouter in his hand. "We'll be ready for you" he growled into it. There was silence for a few seconds before laughter broke through, followed by silence. Piccolo tossed the scouter to the ground before turning to look around the battle field. The two humans, while weaker than him, had managed to slow the saiyan down, if only a bit. He might need their help if it came down to it.

With a growl, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the remaining senzu bean he had been given. He snapped it in half before placing one half in Krillin's mouth, watching with mixed feelings as Krillin's body started to heal up. Only a bit, considering it was only half a bean, but it was enough to restore life to the dying monk.

He then made his way towards Tien, ignoring Chiaotzu's attempts to stop him, merely back handing the small human away from him and turning Tien over before putting the half senzu bean into Tien's mouth. For a second, he thought it was too late before Tien's jaw moved the slightest but and the bean was swallowed.

Color immediately returned to the humans skin and with a cough, Tien came back to consciousness, shock covering his features as he realized that, not only was he alive, but that he owed such life to the evil Piccolo Jr. He opened his mouth to try to express his surprise but a glare silenced him.

Piccolo merely floated up into the air, looking down at the now conscious humans. "The alien survived. He ran away, but he has two of his allies on the way here. They are both stronger than him, most likely by a decent margin..." Piccolo said, watching as shock appeared over both the humans faces.

" Also, Goku's dead, and the dragon balls have already been used. If you want to try to wish him back you're going to have to wait a full year to gather them let alone make a wish. If you're timings off by even a little bit he will be past the point where the dragon balls can bring him back. I'm planning on spending this year training for the fight. I'd recommend you do the same. If these guys are anything like the last one... I might need your help" Piccolo said, growling out the last section, annoyed that he was having to ask for help from creature's below him. With that, he shot off into the air, heading back towards the lookout.

"It looks like I'm going to need that boy alive rather than dead" he thought, considering his options involving Gohan. "if I train him to use that secret power he might be able to make a difference in this fight" he muttered to himself as he flew away.

So there is chapter 2. It's a decent bit shorter, and I considered continuing. But this felt like a good cut off point. Writing more after the battle would take away from the battle itself I think. I wish I could have written the battle out to be a bit longer but the reality is that Raditz was much stronger than all of them. As far as Tien's Tri beam goes, I know it's unlikely for him to be able to pull off such a move, but he was using a large chunk of life energy here. I find its hard to judge straight ki against life energy. Plus the attribute of the tri-beam is the force of the move, driving downwards. It's the reason Tien was able to hold down Semi-perfect Cell despite the vast difference in power. If Tien can do that, then it's got to be at least possible for him to slow down Raditz. As for Krillin, well, Destructo disc had enough power to cut through 2nd form Frieza's tail. I imagine Raditz would have a lot less defense. It's still early, technically about 6 months earlier than the events in canon considering Raditz arrived at the same time Garlic Jr was making his own bid for power, so Krillin hasn't really mastered the move. He can throw it but it's a big drain on his energy and his charge time and accuracy isn't what it was at his first use in the show. As far as Yamcha goes... well, I like Yamcha as a character but he's always been cocky. He went all in on an opponent way out of his league and Raditz was still adjusting to the weak human opponents. One strike at a vital spot from someone six times stronger than you is more than enough to be lethal.

Power Levels

Chiaotzu: 127

Tien (four witches): 240

Tien (Four Witches multi form): 60

Tien (Four Witches multi Neo Tri Beam): 800 (200 a strike with all 4 strikes combining on impact)

Tien (Multi Neo Tri-Beam): 600

Tien (final blast): 300

Krillin (destructo disc):267


	3. Aftermath

Piccolo landed back on the lookout with his eyes closed in concentration, a thousand thoughts running through his head. Today had definitely been more eventful than expected.

First he'd been attacked by Garlic Jr's goons, then after dealing with them and making his way to Garlic, Goku had shown up... with the kid. Then Goku went and died... before he got to kill him himself, and the boy defeated Garlic Jr like it was nothing, showing a power far beyond what a toddler, or for that matter anyone should have been capable of.

As soon as that had reach its completion he had been informed of an alien invader and arrived to find all the humans fighting Raditz, a name which he had picked on while charging his special beam cannon. He was still a bit peeved that Raditz had survived the attack. If the small bald human had held on for a few more seconds that attack would have pierced right through his heart. There would have been no question of survival if that had happened.

But of course, it hadn't. Piccolo wasn't too surprised he supposed. It's not like he was relying on the humans, though he had to admit he was sufficiently impressed by what he had seen.

He had considered Goku to be the only threat to him on this planet, and had dismissed all others as insects. But based on the techniques the humans had shown, he was starting to think paying them heed would be the right decision. The disc of energy Krillin had generated might not be able to slow him for too long considering his ability to regenerate limbs, but it would definitely be capable of hurting him, something he hadn't considered possible. Then of course there was the three eyed human. He'd been too far away to see the first part of the fight, but he had definitely felt the ki coming off of the attacks he had generated. If he had been the one under that attack he wasn't sure he could guarantee that he'd be able to get back up afterward.

On top of all that, he had also learned that two more aliens were on the way to Earth, both of which likely stronger than the first, an idea he could barely process. Just this morning he had been the second strongest being in all known existence, which technically hadn't extended off this planet... but it's not like anyone had known aliens exist.

Piccolo was honestly stumped. If these two new aliens were twice as strong as the first one they would be a challenge. Three times would be a struggle. He truthfully had no idea how strong they could be, and usually he wouldn't be one to underestimate an opponent completely, but he just had nothing to compare it to.

The amount of power he'd felt off Raditz had already been staggering. It was hard to believe anyone could be that much stronger than that, but it was possible. At least when his only goal was getting strong enough to beat Goku, he had known how powerful he had to become.

Goku... that brought his thoughts around to another sect. He had heard Krillin talking to Raditz during the ending of the fight and had stumbled upon the knowledge that Goku was the first alien's brother, which of course meant Goku himself was an alien. He supposed it made some sense. Goku had always been a step ahead of all the humans, and Piccolo had to guess it came down to good genes.

There was another thought. Goku had a son, a three and a half year old spoiled brat. A brat that could somehow increase his power higher than even Raditz based on emotion alone. That child's realized potential was going to be important to their survival when the saiyan's came. He would have to start there, with the kid. A year's time was more than enough to train the brat, and maybe getting a grasp on how the kids power worked would give him an idea on how to fight the saiyans. After all, the kid was half saiyan himself.

With that thought in mind he opened his eyes and strode forward to the center of the still ruined lookout. He saw Kami standing over the child, using his staff to hold himself up, and a sneer made it's way across his face. "Move aside old man. I'm here for the boy." he growled angrily.

His anger only continued to swell when the old man seemed to ignore him, his eyes closed as if he were asleep... or meditating, but Piccolo felt that was giving the old timer too much credit. He briefly considered knocking the old man away but thought better of it considering the effects such an attack would have on himself as well. Instead he chose to flare his aura. Kami's eyelids briefly fluttered at that, sensing the power level mere feet away from him, but his eyes didn't open.

"Hn, old man better have a good reason for ignoring me" Piccolo thought with a sour look as he crossed his arms and waited. About a minute later, Kami's eye's opened and immediately turned to meet Piccolo's gaze. "You've returned I see" Kami said with a tinge of apprehension in his voice. "Amazing you can see anything considering how old you are" Piccolo grunted out.

Kami's already stern expression soured even more at his darker half's insults. "I've heard about the two approaching saiyans. They're stronger than you realize" Kami said with a grimace. That caught Piccolo's attention.

"If you have information that can help, then spill it" Piccolo said. Kami simply nodded before starting to talk. "I've been talking to King Yenma. If things work out then both Goku and Yamcha will be receiving special training in otherworld." Piccolo snorted at this. "Goku I can understand, but whats the point in training the other one? Hes far too weak to be of any use" Piccolo sneered.

Kami just sighed at that before continuing. "They will be trained by the mighty King Kai. His training is legendary. I'm sure it will be worth while." Kami said. "It will also be necessary..." Kami said as his tone darkened. "I have been informed that the lead saiyan approaching earth is rumored to be ten times stronger than Raditz." At this Piccolo's calm stance fell into one of shock, the surprise written across his usually stoic face, plain as day. "ten times!" Piccolo thought as fear started to creep into his being.

After a few seconds of panic, Piccolo's mind began to catch back up. "Hn, fine it looks like I'll need all the help I can get." Piccolo said, reluctantly accepting the offer for help. Kami nodded in relief. He had truthfully been a bit worried. With Goku gone, Piccolo had a very real chance to vie for dominance. If he had chosen to refuse their help, he could have easily stopped them all from summoning Shenron when the time came. But it appeared even Piccolo understood his limits.

"Good, i'm glad we agree" Kami said with a nod. "I plan to invite the human fighters to train here in hopes of increasing their chances... you are welcome to come as well." Kami said with his own reluctance.

Piccolo laughed at the gesture. "hah, training with a bunch of weaklings would only slow me down. Feel free to do what you can for them, not that I think it will help." Piccolo said before his arm suddenly shot forward with amazing speed, moving right past Kami's side. Before Kami could even begin to realize what had happened, the arm retracted, now holding an unconscious Gohan.

"I will be taking the kid though. I plan to train him personally" Piccolo said with a smirk before shooting off into the air, taking the kid with him. Kami stared after him for a while after he left, pondering Piccolo's decision to take the child. "I can only hope the boy survives whatever Piccolo has planned" he said with a sigh before disappearing from where he was.

* * *

Kami appeared in the office of King Yenma, on his desk to be specific, startling the large red overseer of otherworld. "Kami? Oh Kami, there you are. I was wondering when you were finally going to show up" King Yenma said as he gained his bearing, staring down at the miniscule guardian of earth.

"Ye-yes King Yenma, sir, sorry for the delay" Kami said apologetically, immediately feeling the difference in rank between the two of them. King Yenmas face turned to frown as he looked at Kami. "I don't have time for flattery. You said this was important so I waited on judging these two." Yenma said as he waved his hand, gesturing towards Goku and Yamcha who were off to the side.

Goku was busy exploring the room with an innocent curiosity. Yamcha on the other hand was sitting on the ground moping. "I couldn't land one hit" Yamcha thought dejectedly. It was then that the two students of Master Roshi realized the newest arrival. "Kami!" they both exclaimed. Kami looked at the two with a slight smile before turning to King Yenma.

"Oh mighty Yenma, I would like to ask your permission to allow these two to journey to King Kai's planet. Two powerful saiyans are on the way to earth this very moment and without the training they could receive I fear the earth may be doomed. "King Yenma's bored expression barely changed at that. "Sounds more like your problem then mine" he said, absent-mindedly messing with his giant pencil.

Kami's face shrank at the statement. "If the earth should perish there will be billions dead. That would result in a lot more work for you King Yenma" Kami said, trying a new approach to persuade the judge. "A couple billion? Hn I judge more souls than that in a few hours. That's not a big deal to me" Yenma said, his melancholy expression never leaving his face. He watched as Kami's expression began to fall into one of despair. Truthfully, he didn't much care whether they went of not. He was just not enjoying Kami's irritating attempts at praise. It was wasting his valuable time.

"But fine. You can send them down snake way, though I don't think it will be possible for them to reach King Kai" Yenma said, finally relenting. "Maybe now they'll get out of my hair so I can get back to judging souls" Yenma thought, staring out the door where he could see the line of souls reaching even further back and growing by the second.

Kami stammered for a second at the unexpected approval before thanking Yenma and hopping off his desk, heading to Goku and Yamcha to fill them in on the situation. "Goku, Yamcha" he said, acknowledging the two fighters. "You will be heading down snake way in hopes of receiving training from King Kai" he said as he gestured towards a door where a long snake like road appeared to be. At the start of the road was the head of a snake. "Wow, I can't even see the end!" Goku said excitedly, already intrigued by the idea of training.

Yamcha was less enthusiastic. "It must go on forever" he sighed. Kami turned a critical eye towards the scar faced bandit. "You are being given a colossal chance. Should you complete this chance you will be stronger than you have ever imagined" Kami said, trying to convince the human that it was worth doing what he had told. Yamcha at the very least looked up from the ground to meet his eyes at the statement.

"Would I be able to become stronger than Raditz?" Yamcha asked with a hopeful look on his face. Kami smiled at that. "i'd think at least twice" Kami said truthfully. He watched as Yamcha's face lit up as the bandit finally began to comprehend the value of this training. "well in that case i'm totally in!" Yamcha said excitedly. "Ya. It's gonna be so much fun!" Goku said with a care free grin.

Kami turned to look at Goku with a serious expression still on his face, causing Goku to pause in his celebration. "this will not be for fun. The future of the Earth is depending on you two. Two more saiyans are approaching earth, both vastly superior to Raditz." Kami criticized. Goku only blinked at him. "um... ok, but what's a Raditz?" Goku asked with confusion. Kami stared at Goku blankly. "I suppose he was dead by the time Raditz made his move. It makes sense that he wouldn't know what happened" Kami thought with a sigh.

"Goku.. Raditz is your brother. He, along with you, are aliens known as saiyans" Kami told him. Goku was left flabbergasted at the intake of information. "Wow, um really?!" Goku asked, overwhelmed by the thoughts coursing through his usually slow mind. Yamcha too, expressed surprise at the info. He had known Raditz was an alien, but Goku too? That was certainly a surprise.

"I know it is a lot to take in, but we have wasted enough time. The two of you have a long journey ahead of you... and Goku..." Kami said, drawing the attention the newly realized saiyan. "There is no reason to go slow for Yamcha's sake. The sooner you reach King Kai the better. Yamcha is capable of completing this journey as well, just not as quickly as you might" Kami said seriously before disappearing again, returning to the lookout on Earth.

Yamcha turned towards Goku before sighing. "he's right ya know. I'd just slow you down. You go ahead. I'll catch up" Yamcha said. Goku nodded at him before turning towards the trail and running off, shooting through the snakes mouth and sprinting down it's length. Yamcha walked up the snake head and stared down it until Goku was nearly out of sight. "Wonder how long this goes on for." he muttered to himself.

He was thrown off guard when someone responded to his internal question. "about one million kilometers. I think that comes in about 625,000 miles." a short blue ogre said from near the lookout. Yamcha was shocked. "that's crazy... I don't think it's even possible. Well I guess I should get started" Yamcha said as he took a deep breath and began to run down snake way as well.

As soon as Kami appeared back on the lookout he set his mind to the task of mentally tracking down the ki signatures of the remaining human warriors. If they were to stand any chance, then training could not be pushed off. The sooner he could get these humans here the better. "Hello. This is Kami, the guardian of earth. I am speaking to you telepathically. I want to invite you here for training against the approaching saiyans. I believe my training will be able to give you a fighting chance, but only if we start with haste" Kami sent out mentally to the human friends of Goku he imagined could be of use, namely Krillin and Tien, though Chiaotzu and Yajirobe also received the message.

Kami was no true master at telepathy. He had been able to get the message across but he had no way to link the others to him and receive a response. All he could do was hope that they took his message as seriously as it truly was and came here very soon, preferably by the end of the day. On second thought, Kami thought as he looked around the still ruined lookout, it might be better if they came tomorrow. Him and Mr. Popo would need at least a night to repair the damages caused by Garlic Jr.

* * *

Elsewhere in the world, Yajirobe, who had been busy cooking his newest hunt, a large purple dinosaur that had made the mistake of trying to attack him while he was sleeping suddenly stopped what he was doing, hearing the message from Kami mentally push its way into his mind. "hn, sounds like a lot of work" he muttered before grabbing a large chunk of dinosaur meat and taking a large bite, chewing with fervor. "Still, if I don't go and everyone else does, I guess that'd make me the weakest member of the group. Well... i'll head over there once i'm done eating I guess" Yajirobe said to himself between bites.

Tien also received the message. To be honest, he had been partially expecting it. If this didn't qualify as special circumstances he didn't know what did, and hopefully with Kami's help he could take his training to the next level. If the fight with Raditz was any indication, he really needed it. He turned to his side to see Chiaotzu flying next to him with a scrunched up face. Obviously Chiaotzu had also received the message. He wasn't so sure that he wanted Chiaotzu in this fight. After all, he had already died once and the dragonballs wouldn't be able to wish him back if he fell again. He wasn't sure how he would deal if that were to come to pass. But honestly, they were going to need all the help they could get if they were to stand any chance, and there was no harm in letting him come for training. Maybe the results would be worth while enough to soothe his fears.

"Chiaotzu" Tien began, catching the attention of his small companion. "We should take his advice and head to Kami's for training. Let's stop by the house so we can grab our training gear and then we'll head to Korin's" Tien said. Chiaotzu nodded at him, a serious expression laced across his pale white face.

Krillin too received the message. He had just reached Master Roshi's house and filled him in when Kami's voice had suddenly appeared in his mind offering training. His eyes briefly flashed to his own master at the offer, weighing his options. He had been preparing to train with Master Roshi in preparation of the saiyans, but Kami was definitely a better option, Still, he respected Master Roshi too much to just walk out on him. He would have to ask what he thought about it.

Master Roshi looked forward towards Krillin calmly. The message had not been delivered to him, but due to his own telepathic abilities he had been able to pick up on part of the message from Krillin. He was a bit saddened by the fact that he had not been considered as one of the potential protectors of this world, but truthfully he had seen it coming. The young warriors had all long since passed him up. He had known for years now that his time as a warrior was at it's end. His last fight against King Piccolo had been nothing but desperation. Now, only a few years later, all of his students were strong enough to match King Piccolo one on one, whereas he had only become weaker as time went on, despite training, well, maybe he could have trained harder, but the effort felt wasted. Despite the fact that he would live forever, his physical state was far passed his prime and he continued to get weaker year after year. His expansive list of special abilities still gave him some use as a fighter, but the new generation was already a step ahead of him and he knew that, as an old man, even training from the guardian of earth wouldn't be enough to bring him back to the top tier of warriors. At this point, he would just be holding them all back.

As his thoughts ended, he returned his gaze to Krillin who was looking at him hesitantly. "Krillin, I want you to go to Kami's and train with him. There is very little left that I could hope to teach you and with only a year's time to train, I think you would be better off receiving training from Kami than I" Master Roshi said to his student. Krillin's face lightened at that.

"Ya, I'll take your advice, thanks Master Roshi!" Krillin said with a grin and a wave as he turned to fly away, only to find his path blocked by Bulma, her arms crossed and tears in her eyes. "Oh crap" Krillin muttered out before clutching his mouth, eyes widened in fear. He really didn't know how to help Bulma, and he had a tendency to just make things worse when it came to girls. To prove his point, he had still never had a girlfriend.

"Um... so... sorry about Yamcha heh heh" Krillin said with an awkward laugh. Bulma stared at him for a few seconds before collapsing to her knees and breaking down crying. "I can't believe he's really gone!" Bulma wailed, momentarily forgetting the ability of the dragon balls. "Ya, heh, bad day. Goku got taken out too" Krillin said, rubbing the back of his head nervously. He really didn't know what to say to make things better.

Obviously telling Bulma about Goku wasn't the right answer as Bulma just started crying even harder. Before Krillin could say anything else, Master Roshi cut in. "Krillin, I will deal with Bulma. You should hurry to the lookout" he said seriously. Krillin turned towards his master before sighing. "ya I guess you're right. Just don't do anything weird with her" Krillin said with a serious look before stepping around Bulma and flying out the door.

Master Roshi stepped up to where Bulma was and knelt down, gently helping her to her feet and moving her towards the coach... where he placed his hand directly under where she would sit. It took Bulma a second in her heart broken mind to recognize what had happened but when she did, the tears stopped and she turned towards Master Roshi, slapping him as hard as she could. "You pervert!" she yelled angrily. Master Roshi merely smiled eerily as he moved his hand away.

"I thought it would help" he said with mock humility. Truthfully, it had helped. Whereas before Bulma had been breaking down, now she was acting like her normal self. Hopefully he would be able to pass off a few more perverted actions as for her own good. "you know" Master Roshi began with a serious tone. "Your body has really developed in the last few years" he said with a perverted grin, earning another slap from Bulma, this one with much more force.

On a mountain, hundreds of miles away, a young man was struggling to reach the top. "wow heh heh. I finally found it" he said to himself as he pulled himself up the last cliff edge, staring at a small capsule house hidden in a crevasse. "I hope he'll take me seriously" he said as he walked towards the house with a broad grin, excited about finally reaching his destination. "I can't believe I finally found him" he said as his grin widened even more.

So there is chapter three. No fighting in this chapter but I guess that's to be expected, considering this is the aftermath of the last two fights. And yes, at the end of the chapter, there is a new character entering. It is an OC but he is human just like the rest of them. I'm not trying to make someone overpowered and I plan to fit him into the story through normal means. He is one of two planned OC's in this story, with the second being a former member of frieza's army. Neither of them will be overpowered.

No power levels for this chapter. There really wasn't anyone there to see that you haven't already seen. I suppose I could tell you Bulma has a power level of 4 but who really cares. I'll give a power level for Yajirobe when he's actually doing something. No point mentioning his power level here.


	4. The Name's Ryu

AN: chapter 4 and already getting a couple of fans. Looks like I'm doing okay. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and if I didn't pm you back a response I'll probably respond at the bottom of the chapter

The Name's Ryu

The young man had almost reached the door of the capsule house, which appeared to be even shoddier than it had looked from a distance when a voice rung out a few feet above him.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" the voice said. The teenager turned towards the voice with a look of surprise before the grin reappeared on his face as he recognized who he was talking to. It was hard not to. Not too many people had three eyes and could fly. Really limited the selection to, well, one as far as he knew.

"Tien. I was looking for you" the teen said, waving at the former crane assassin. Tien was a bit caught off guard by the response. He had just made it back to the house to gather supplies for training only to find this person here. He had chosen this location to avoid the public eye, so he had already assumed the kid was likely there for him or someone else dwelling in the house. Namely Chiaotzu of Launch. It wasn't like there was any other reason to climb this far up a mountain in the middle of nowhere.

Usually when someone came looking for him though it had something to do with his time as an assassin. Killing people tended to make enemies and every now and then one would get it in their head to hunt down the hunter in pursuit of revenge. The person in front of him however, didn't seem to harness any ill intent. At least none that he could sense.

Speaking of senses, the kid also appeared to have a higher than normal ki output. Nowhere near his own level of course, or even Chiaotzu's, but enough to be worth considering. "You still haven't answered why you are here." Tien said, keeping a serious tone as he lowered himself to the ground using his ki.

Chiaotzu followed, looking back and forth between the two rapidly, as if seeing them in succession would somehow fill in the blanks as to what was happening.

"Oh. Sorry about that. My name is Ryu, and I've come to train under you" Ryu said with wide grin, rubbing the back of his head.

"Train under me?" Tien thought with some surprise. "Hm. Definitely didn't see that coming... it's too bad the saiyans are attacking. I don't have the time to train some kid, and he's definitely not ready for anything Kami would do. I'll have to tell him no" Tien thought with a sigh. "Sorry kid, but I'm a bit busy. I'm just here to grab some stuff and then I'm leaving." he said with a shrug as he turned to enter the house, ignoring the teen's distraught face.

"But wait, I've spent all year trying to find you! I even climbed the mountain!" Ryu said, anxiously trying to change Tien, his idol's, mind. Tien stopped his step but didn't turn to face him.

"Why do you want to train under me so badly?" Tien asked, slightly curious as to why the kid was so interested in him.

"Well... my father was a competitor in the 22nd world martial arts tournament. I used to think he was the strongest person in the world. He was definitely the strongest in our village by far. But he didn't even make it through the preliminaries. My dad wanted to leave early since he lost but I wanted to see all the strong fighters. If someone had beaten him, I wanted to see how strong they were. I was only a kid back then, just turned nine, but I remember watching the tournament. You were amazing. And you could fly. It was really cool" Ryu said with a grin.

"... I wasn't the best person back then" Tien said, finally turning to look at the kid. "Chiaotzu. Go collect our things from the house. I'll entertain the kid while you get everything ready to go." he said, his arms crossing in front of him. "You saw the whole tournament?" Tien asked.

"Ya. You were really brutal early on but after your match with Jackie Chun, you seemed to calm down a bit. Then there was the whole thing with your master. It was awesome when you stood up to him." Ryu enthused. It was obvious that he had a lot of respect for Tien and his accomplishments.

Tien however, wasn't the type to enjoy flattery. He preferred not to dwell on the past, and his mistakes within. The only thing he could do was move forward. Thinking about prior mistakes would only slow him down and distract him from the things that really mattered.

"Ok... so far you've just talked about me. Tell me more about you. Why should I put in the time to train you?" Tien asked, feeling a bit guilty for asking considering he had no plan to train the kid due to time constraints.

"Well, I'm nowhere near how strong you were in the tournament but I've been training all my life. Once I saw the tournament I realized that there was still so much I could learn and I've spent all my time since then trying to get stronger." Ryu said, sounding like he was rehearsing a speech, which he probably was. Ryu had spent many years preparing himself for this moment. He just hoped things worked out and that Tien didn't leave him here. It would be disappointing; to finally find his idol only for him to leave as soon as he arrived.

"Fine. You think you're strong then here's a test for you." Tien said as he slid into his usual fighting stance.

"Alright!" Ryu exclaimed as he slid into his own stance, placing his right foot in front, facing forward, and his right arm in an open hand in front while his back foot was turned out and his left arm was placed at his side.

"His stance appears to have a lot of openings. Though the technique isn't bad" Tien observed calmly. "Attack me. Let's see what you can do." he said.

Ryu simply nodded before rushing in, his front hand aiming for a jab towards Tien's face. Tien casually leaned back, dodging the first strike. Ryu followed up by driving his front knee forward in a flying knee strike. Tien, momentarily surprised by the somewhat unorthodox combo dodged by a hair.

"His speed is decent for someone untrained in ki" Tien acknowledged to himself as he dodged the next strike; a powerful left roundhouse kick, aimed for his solar plexus. Ryu still didn't stop though as his left arm, which had been at home until now suddenly shot up with an uppercut, sent out to his side, using his new location to his advantage.

This one Tien chose to block, easily deflecting it with one hand, pushing Ryu off balance with the motion and sending him falling backwards towards the ground, unable to keep his balance with the awkward stance he found himself in after the missed roundhouse and the failed trajectory of his earlier knee strike. Ryu responded by tucking and rolling backwards, quickly reaching his feet again and sliding into his stance.

"He has some battle sense. And he seems to be able to adapt to changes pretty well. He's probably almost as good as Yamcha was back in the 22nd world martial arts tournament... almost" Tien said as he watched Ryu with a silent stare, waiting for his next attack.

Ryu didn't disappoint as he rushed forward with his hand placed in front. At the last second before his fist appeared to extend for a punch, Tien noticed that his right foot had stepped out further than was natural for the attack he was attempting.

Due to his own martial arts mastery, he was able to predict the next move and squatted down while raising his left arm to block his face as Ryu pivoted his front foot around, throwing a spinning hook kick towards Tien instead. Tien, who had already prepared for it, easily dodged underneath before grabbing onto the leg and tossing Ryu away.

Caught off guard, Ryu was unable to stop his unexpected flight before hitting the ground and sliding a few feet away. He laid there dazed for a second before kipping up back to his feet and sliding back into his stance only to see Tien was no longer in his and had instead turned towards the door where Chiaotzu was exiting with two small bags, being levitated through the air behind him.

"Is that everything?" Tien asked his friend. "Yep. Are you almost done playing Tien?" Chiaotzu asked. "Hm... ya I guess so," Tien said as he turned towards Ryu. "You're not bad. With the right training I think you could become strong," Tien said, watching uncomfortably as Ryu's face lit up. Now was the time for the bad news. "Unfortunately I can't be the one to train you. Chiaotzu and I have our own training to get to and we only have a year to do it. If we can't get strong enough the whole world could end. I just don't have the time to train you right now," he said, watching as the excitement melted from Ryu's face and was replaced by a downcast expression.

"Tell you what" Tien settled. "If the world is still here in a year, come back and I'll consider it" Tien said with a sigh.

"Why can't I come and train with you?" Ryu asked, trying desperately to convince Tien not to leave him behind.

"Sorry, but where we are going is going to be too advanced for you as you are now." Tien said as he began to float into the air, Chiaotzu following behind him, the bags floating a few feet away.

"See you around Ryu," Tien said as he turned and began to fly off. Ryu stared after them for a minute, saddened by the news.

"No... I don't want to give up yet!" he said with a flash of determination as he slowly lifted himself into the air, awkwardly following them through the air at a slow speed. He had taught himself to fly after seeing Tien do it in the world martial arts tournament as a kid. He wasn't exactly good at it, considering he was self taught, but he'd read enough text books on it to figure out it had to do with ki.

That was another thing he needed to work on. He had seen all the amazing moves in the tournament but he was barely capable of flight, and when it came to generating ki, well, on his best day he could make a small ki blast about the size of his thumb. That blast usually exploded and left him feeling exhausted for the rest of the day. Still, he was here to train to improve that and, considering how close he was, he really didn't want to give up just yet.

* * *

Elsewhere, in a small mountain laden area, Piccolo was holding onto the still unconscious child. Well, holding onto maybe wasn't the best term. At the moment he was holding the child as far away from him as he could without extending his arm. His clawed hand was wrapped around the tail of the young Gohan.

It was then that his hand opened, dropping Gohan downward and into the water, watching for a second as bubbles formed before the water pulled Gohan from unconsciousness, watching with some amusement as the boy flailed around, trying to escape the knee deep water.

Once Gohan had settled into the fact that he was in water and stood to his feet, looking around haphazardly, Piccolo decided to make his presence known. Clearing his throat seemed to have the intended effect as Gohan spun around, looking up towards Piccolo in fear.

"You!" Gohan said as he tried to take a step back, only to trip on a small rock in the water and lose his footing, falling backwards into the water yet again. Piccolo watched with a bit less amusement than he had felt the previous time as Gohan worked once more to regain his footing in the water.

"Do you remember what happened?" he asked, his arms crossed across his chest as he glared down at the kid with disdain. Gohan stood there for a second as if trying to piece together what the mean green man could want when the memories finally clicked into place and he started to cry uncontrollably.

Piccolo just glared even harder. "Dealing with this kid is going to be hell..." Piccolo thought as he waited for the child to stop crying and say something. After waiting nearly a minute, he decided he didn't care enough to wait and instead picked the kid up by his shirt and slapped him on the top of the head.

"Stop crying brat" he said as he dropped Gohan back into the water, watching with some satisfaction as Gohan rubbed his eyes and stopped crying.

"My daddy is dead... and it's all my FAULT" Gohan cried out, his tears starting up once more. This time, his tears were also accompanied by a substantial burst in ki, enough to make Piccolo uncross his arms and cover his face as water splashed around him.

"You're right. It is. Now, do you remember what happened afterward?" Piccolo asked, intent on not coddling the boy. Gohan glared at him for a second with his child eyes before nodding.

"I got really angry and then I hit the big mean man that kil... hurt my daddy and he fell into his hole" Gohan said.

Piccolo sighed. The details were there, though it was definitely simplified. Guess it was to be expected when working with a kid. "Right. When you got angry, you became stronger. Stronger than even your father" Piccolo said.

"No way, my daddy's the strongest in the world!" Gohan protested before faltering. "Or... he was" Gohan said, near crying again.

"Don't worry. Your dad will be back" Piccolo said, trying to prevent Gohan from crying yet again. Gohan looked up at him with hopeful eyes and Piccolo was left with no choice but to elaborate. "The dragon balls. I assume your dad told you about them?" Piccolo asked.

"Uh huh. He said whoever collects all seven gets a wish!" Gohan said, quoting one of his favorite bedtime stories.

"Right... and what do you think Goku's friends are going to wish for?" Piccolo asked again, leading Gohan to the obvious answer. It was then when Gohan finally understood.

"They'd wish my daddy back!" Gohan said excitedly, starting to jump up and down. It was when he stepped towards Piccolo for a hug that Piccolo decided he had had enough. He shifted backwards out of range of the young half-breed, watching as the boy stumbled forward, surprised to find air where there had once been a person. Gohan looked up at Piccolo with a look of confusion.

"No hugs... anyways, I brought you out here to train you. Your hidden power is impressive and with the right training you could become strong. I was recently informed that two aliens known as saiyans are going to be attacking earth next year. I plan on training you to fight them." Piccolo said.

Gohan stared down at the ground in confusion. His first thought was to tell Piccolo that he wasn't a fighter. He was a going to be a scholar like his mom said. His next thought was about his father though, and how he had died protecting him.

With a deep sigh, Gohan looked up towards Piccolo. "If you train me... I'll be able to control my power?" Gohan asked determinedly.

Piccolo smirked at that. "That's the idea" he said.

Gohan simply nodded at him. "Okay I'll do it!" Gohan said excitedly.

Piccolo frowned at that. "It really wasn't an option to begin with. I'm training you whether you like it or not..." Piccolo said as he started to float into the air.

Gohan tried to grab onto him. "Hey wait, where are you going? What about my training?" Gohan called out.

"Hn, you're too soft. I'll be back to train you later. Until then, you're on your own" he said as he shot off into the air, away from Gohan.

"But wait! You can't just leave me out here! I'm just a kid!" Gohan complained, starting to cry again. "What am I going to do for food? Where am I gonna sleep? I want my mommy!" Gohan cried out, sitting in the water as he continued to cry.

* * *

Chiaotzu had been flying with Tien for a few minutes now. He wasn't sure what exactly had happened with the kid from before, but he wasn't sure he was fully okay with it. It seemed to him like Tien was just having trouble trusting people again. He was tempted to ask Tien about it and had almost moved to open his mouth when he noticed something strange.

He could still sense Ryu's ki signature. By now, they should have been out of range. They had traveled miles. He stopped to focus on the energy, realizing in surprise that not only was the ki still close, but the energy seemed to be moving towards them. It was slow, much slower than them, but it explained why he could still sense it.

"He's trying to follow us?" Chiaotzu realized. "Tien!" he called out, catching his friends attention, who had been flying ahead up till then.

Tien looked at his partner with a surprised look, wondering what drove his friend to stop at a time like this. "That kid, Ryu, I think he's following us." Chiaotzu said.

Tien, at first disbelieving his friend, began to focus on sensing ki, his eyes closing in concentration. It took a few seconds but he was finally able to lock onto a decent sized ki a few miles behind them. A few more seconds of searching and he was able to tell for certain that it was the same ki he had felt before. The ki belonging to Ryu.

"This kid just doesn't give up does he?" Tien muttered to himself before sighing. "Chiaotzu, you go on ahead. I'll catch up to you in a few minutes." Tien said before taking off in the direction where he could sense Ryu.

"I hope he doesn't do anything bad." Chiaotzu muttered to himself before turning and continuing to fly towards the lookout, albeit at a slower pace.

It wasn't long before Tien had reached the place where he had sensed Ryu. The sight he arrived on surprised him.

The boy wasn't just following them. He was flying after them, or at the very least attempting to fly. He was wasting a lot of ki the way he was doing it now. His energy flared left and right in an attempt to keep him air born. So far, it appeared to be working, though based on the sweat coming off of Ryu, it was definitely taking it's toll.

Tien decided his first order of business was to bring Ryu to the ground before he hurt himself. Swooping in front of Ryu, he gestured towards the ground, a small clearing, surrounded by trees wasn't too far from them. Ryu nodded tiredly before floating down after him. He landed smoothly but then his legs gave out under him and he slumped to the ground, panting.

"Who taught you how to fly? Your technique is very wasteful," Tien commented with some disgust. "Um... I taught myself. I saw you do it as a kid and I really wanted to learn how. I've been trying for years but I still don't think I have it down well," Ryu said between breaths.

"Taught himself?" Tien thought in surprise. Tien had to laugh at that. "Pretty impressive kid. Maybe I underestimated you a bit." Tien said with a smile.

"Does that mean you'll train me!" Ryu said excitedly, forcing himself to shaky feet in celebration. "Not quite. But I'll give you some advice." Tien said as he closed his eyes, sensing for something before opening them wide and facing Ryu.

His right hand lifted to point to the west. "I want you to follow where I've pointed to, by foot," Tien began. "If you follow in this direction for a couple days you should come across a tower with Indian carvings on it. When you get there I want you to climb the tower and train with the person at the top. Do you understand?" Tien asked seriously while making a mental note to tell Korin about this.

He assumed the cat wouldn't be too happy with unexpected visitors, at least not when someone could warn him first. Ryu nodded, a bit taken aback by the advice. But any advice was better than no advice at all. He was completely exhausted from trying to fly after Tien and he honestly doubted he could have flown any further. This new alternative was probably for the best.

Assured that Ryu understood his directions, Tien floated back into the air before shooting off in towards the lookout again, moving a bit faster than before in an effort to catch back up with Chiaotzu.

Ryu, left on the ground, began a slow walk in the direction he had been told, trying to catch his breath all the while. He'd probably have to stop and rest some time soon. He was completely drained on ki at the moment and his vision was blurring out a bit. But for the moment, he had a new goal and that was enough to keep him going.

* * *

Chiaotzu had just arrived at the lookout when he felt Tien closing in behind him. He turned to see his friend come to a halt a few feet away.

Tien wiped the thin layer of sweat off of his forehead, before lowering himself to stand on the lookout. "Sorry I'm late" Tien said to his friend before looking past him towards where Kami was walking out of the main temple like building.

"Master Kami," Tien addressed respectfully.

"Kami is fine I assure you," Kami said as he walked closer. "You two are the first to arrive, though I feel the others are not too far away. For now, let us wait," Kami said as he stood there, closing his eyes, concentrating on some unknown task.

"Kami, I'm going to use this time to stop by Korin's. I need to talk to him about something." Tien said before stepping off the lookout and letting himself drop for a while. When he saw Korin's tower come into view he halted his descent and floated into the small tower.

"Master Korin?" Tien called out as he looked around. "Tien? What a surprise. I'm all out of senzu beans I'm afraid. It'll take another eight months for my newest batch to grow." Korin said as he walked down the stairs to reach Tien.

"That's fine Master Korin. I'm actually here for a different reason today." Tien said.

"Oh, and what reason might that be?" Korin asked with some surprise. It wasn't too often people came to his lookout, but in the last few years nearly all the visits were about his senzu beans.

"Well... I told someone to climb the lookout. He's still a ways away but if he ever makes it to the top, it would be great if you would train him." Tien said. This was something Korin felt he could do.

"A new student you say. It will be my pleasure." Korin said with a cat like grin. It had been boring lately, with nothing to do but watch the world below through his pots. Even then, not much had been happening. It had been very peaceful in the last few years. Well, up until yesterday it had been at least.

"Thank you Master Korin... There is one more thing I might ask of you," Tien began. "If he does complete your training, please send him up to Kami's to train with myself and the others. I don't know if he'll make it but the more people we can gather against the saiyan's the better." Tien said seriously.

At this, Korin raised his cat like eyebrow, his left eye slightly opening to look at Tien. "You seem to expect a lot out of this new arrival. With only a year's time, do you really think he can make it through not only my training but Kami's as well?" Korin asked.

"Truthfully, I'm not sure. But if he does make it through your training then perhaps he will have a chance at Kami's." Tien said with a sigh. "Well, I should head back to Kami's. Our training will be starting soon." Tien said as he began to slowly ascend into the air.

"Thank you Master Korin," he said before flying back up the lookout to wait with Chiaotzu, his thoughts currently focused on the teenager Ryu. "He has potential, but I just don't know what he can accomplish in only a year's time." he thought.

* * *

Goku had been running for hours now and nothing seemed to be changing. The snake like road seemed to just go on and on. He supposed it was to be expected.

Kami had told him it would be a long journey after all. He was just a bit surprised at how long of a journey it was already becoming. He wasn't moving slow by any means. He'd probably run about 100 miles straight, moving at near his top speed but he wasn't getting anywhere.

Yamcha hadn't caught up to him, though he wasn't sure he really expected him to. Yamcha was a good friend, but even he had to admit he was stronger. Even as a kid he had been a step ahead of him. He had been a step ahead of a lot of people. Discovering he was an alien had shed some light as to why that might be. It made some sense, he supposed.

He had always been different, but he had always just summed it up to the fact that he had lived in the woods alone for half his life. Most of his friends had reached the same conclusion. He had never imagined he was actually an alien and that that was the real reason he was so different.

"On second thought, it's probably still got something to do with living in the woods. But I've never actually met another saiyan so I can't say for sure" Goku thought to himself, jumping over a rather large gap.

Caught in his thoughts, Goku underestimated how much force he had pushed off with and cleared not only the first section of road, where he had planned to land, but about half of the next gap before his feet began to lower towards the clouds below.

Goku watched with some surprise as he began to fall closer to the clouds. Before he could think to fly away, he saw dark hands reaching out of the cloud cover for him, surprising him even more. One hand moved to close around his leg and that finally gave him the spark to spring into action. He quickly twisted out of the grip before shooting forward to land on the road again, stopping to pant for breath.

"Heh heh wow. That was kinda scary. Better make sure I don't fall off again or I might be in trouble," Goku thought as he rubbed the back of his head before turning back to the road and starting to run again, this time paying more attention to the edges.

* * *

Yamcha sat there, panting. He had been running for a while now, probably a few hours and he was exhausted.

He hadn't managed to catch up to Goku, but he wasn't sure he ever would. Goku was faster than him, and started before him. It would probably take a lot for him to close the gap. He'd have to be pretty lucky for that to happen. Or Goku could get really unlucky. He doubted that one. In all the time he had known Goku, luck always seemed to be on his side.

No matter what happened, Goku always seemed to find a way out of it. All the times he'd perfectly timed his nimbus rescue, or the time his tail grew back in the middle of a match.

Yamcha's thoughts were suddenly stopped as he considered the tail from a new perspective. "That one time... when he turned into a giant ape. And Raditz had a tail too! Oh man, what would we have done if Raditz had transformed. We would've been screwed!" Yamcha realized, scaring himself with the realization of how bad things could have gotten.

He'd already had to try and fight one giant monkey, and had barely come out of it alive. Even dead, the idea of fighting another scared him to death.

"Well. I guess all I can do is keep going for now." Yamcha said to himself as he pushed himself to his feet, doing a couple back flips to get moving and get himself pumped up. "It might be true that Goku's just born stronger than me. The whole saiyan thing just proves that. Really, he's been ahead of me since he was a kid. But I didn't give up on catching up to him then. Why would I give up now!" Yamcha yelled out to himself as he continued to run, pumping himself up to keep his morale high on the endless road.

* * *

Going to consider this the end of the chapter. Originally I was going to start the training in this one too but this feels like a good spot to stop. Everyone is ready to start so I'll be set up with an easy chapter plan for next time. Anyways, I hope no one feels Ryu is too overpowered. Remember that Tien was mostly just messing with him. He wasn't fighting him seriously. I want to keep him balanced. Too many good stories get ruined by overpowered OC's and it's something I've made the mistake of in some of my early stories. At the same time, I have plans for him, and a set power level up through Namek. I can guarantee he isn't going to be overpowered through straight ki. Hopefully it works out.

Power Levels:

Ryu: 57

As for review responses, I have two to give out for this chapter, besides the ones I responded to in email.

Karl: Raditz arm wouldn't be able to grow back through life support. I am planning on something for Raditz's arm though. It should happen pretty soon. Probably next chapter.

Luke: Thank you for the compliment. Hope I live up to your expectations.


	5. Off to a Slow Start

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or anything related to it

Chapter 5 Training

Escaping that planet had been a stroke of luck. Raditz was sure if he hadn't landed literally in front of the door to his ship, he would be in a very different place right now. Namely hell.

There was no question in his mind that he, along with everyone he knew, would be spending their afterlife rotting away in hell. Not in a religious tense, but there were more than enough stories and legends spread out throughout the galaxy to make him feel some truth must exist inside of it.

He still wasn't so sure he believed in Kami's and Kai's ruling over their eternal slumber, but he sure as hell believed in Hell. He had just woken up in his pod, the emergency life support had immediately put him under when he had entered in critical condition. He was used to spending a lot of time under.

Living the life of a saiyan warrior tended to do that. Battle was a necessity, especially when it happened to be your job. But he was pretty sure he had never been as injured as he was today, or maybe not today. He was still feeling a little light headed, like he had been out for longer than normal.

He reached towards the built in monitor on the left top corner of his pod, or at least he tried to. In his semi-conscious state, he had forgotten a very important piece of information. Mainly the fact that he no longer had a left arm, so obviously using his left arm, or should I say stump, was no longer a viable way to operate his pod.

With a grumble, Raditz reached forward with his right arm, immediately regretting his decision as he turned his torso towards the monitor, pulling on the wound on his body where the namekian had hit him. He could feel that it had reopened, and noticed with annoyance that the emergency life support system was starting back up. He likely only had another minute before it put him back to sleep again.

Raditz pushed himself as he lightly pressing the button with his right arm, gritting his teeth as he pushed through the pain, quickly taking into account the current time and his destination. "Three days already... looks like another month to go," he thought to himself as he looked on at the screen which was flashing, showing his destination to be Frieza Planet 197. One of many outlying planets under the galactic tyrants control.

Really, it was just a barely monitored military base. It was too far out of the way to be used as support for missions. Likewise, it was far enough away that if the base itself ever needed backup, they would likely be wiped out before reinforcements could arrive. The closest backup they could hope for was at least two weeks away.

Still, staying that far out of the way had it's own advantages. The soldiers assigned to that base were all low ranked. The type that had no real place on the battlefield. Most had managed to avoid any real combat by staying on this base.

Being the only planet with any real sentient life in that quadrant made it easy to avoid life or death struggles. That wasn't to say they were the only planet with life in their area. The planet next to them was quickly developing. All reports indicated that the planet was fully capable of supporting life.

The larger than average ocean, and the constant rain storms had allowed the planet to develop a gigantic forest, covering over sixty percent of the planet. The other forty percent was an ocean, teeming with still developing life. The forest was no joke either. They had only sent a few scouts in, but on just one count, after spending only a week inside it's rooted walls, they had discovered hundreds of new species.

Of course, none of this really mattered to Raditz. As a matter of fact, Raditz was already unconscious, courtesy of the life support system and had not read any of the details pertaining to the planet. Even if he had been conscious, it was likely he would have skipped over the details anyways. He was only headed there to rest up.

If he had been conscious, his mind likely would have wandered to his allies. Of course, luckily for him, being asleep allowed him a certain amount of solace and the thought didn't cross his unconscious mind. No, his flight was taken in absolute peace, the life support keeping him in a dreamless stasis as his journey continued.

* * *

Elsewhere in the galaxy, two other Saiyan warriors had just finished their latest conquest.

The smoke of ruined cities and burning bodies permeated the air, but the warriors didn't seem offset by it. If anything, they seemed to be enjoying it. To them, this was a norm. Millions dead, and them standing over the corpses.

As far as Vegeta was concerned, that was exactly where they belonged. They were Saiyan warriors, no, Saiyan elites! All other life forms were inferior to them, and especially him. For he was not just any saiyan. No, he was a prince. The prince of all saiyan's, and the man whose destiny it was to achieve the legend and become a super saiyan.

He was sure it was close at hand. He had never felt more powerful than he did now. Yes, he was sure of it. The end of Frieza's reign was close at hand. For once he became a super saiyan, his first objective was to make the pathetic lizard suffer for every injustice Frieza had delivered to him.

The years of torture and torment, and all the fake loyalty he had feigned to gain support. It was all for the goal of reaching super saiyan.

And, feeling as close as he did now, he didn't even care that the weakling Raditz had somehow failed his mission. Someone as weak as Raditz wasn't worth keeping around anyways.

The only part he wasn't happy about was that Raditz hadn't even reported in to him. The worthless excuse for a saiyan had used up his last chance, and if he was still alive when he came to Earth, he would be sure to show him just how little he was worth as he tortured Raditz for his insubordination.

His smirk slowly faded as he realized that they were still a bit over a year away from the planet they had sent Raditz to. With a grunt of annoyance, he turned towards his ally, Nappa, who appeared to be enjoying the taste of their latest conquest.

The species that had inhabited this planet were small, furry creatures, barely three feet high. Their power levels had been high considering how unimpressive the creatures had appeared. His scouter had indicated that most of them had a power level above 1000, making them all about as strong as Raditz.

Considering his current mindset towards Raditz, he had decided to take out some of his frustrations on the creature's here. He had really enjoyed hearing them all scream as he tore them limb from limb. It had definitely relieved some of his pent up stress, but now he was ready to get to the real deal.

"Nappa," Vegeta said in a commanding voice, gaining the attention of his ally. "Uh, what is it Vegeta?" Nappa asked between bites. "Did you want some too?" he asked as he held up a roasted leg. Vegeta stared at the food for a few seconds before walking towards Nappa and swiping the food from him.

He took a bite, realizing that the creature's cooked quite well. His stomach growled a bit as the sweet bloody juices ran down his throat. Vegeta simply looked up at his ally with a smug look. "Fine then. Let us eat our fill. After this, we have a year long journey planned. We might as well feed while we can," Vegeta said as he looked around at the remaining corpses.

These things were actually tasty. It had been a while since he'd had a feast, and he planned on enjoying himself before they left. It took hours, but finally, the two saiyans had had their fill.

The pile of corpses, hundreds high, had dissipated to nothing but bones, and the two saiyans were currently lazily picking out the leftover meat and tendons from their teeth using those said bones.

After feeling their cleanup was satisfactory, the two saiyan elites then made their way back to their ships and took a seat. Vegeta opened up his monitor and placed the location for his and Nappa's pod for earth. "Nappa, activate your stasis system. This is going to be a long flight," Vegeta said over his scouter.

With that, the two pods raised into the air, the two saiyan's inside already fast asleep, their usually focused minds dulled to nothingness by the stasis they had put themselves under.

* * *

Ryu felt like he had been walking forever. Tien had told him it was about a week away, yet here he was on day nine with no luck. He supposed the reason was because he had been forced to walk for the first two days to make up for all the ki he had wasted flying there.

Still, he felt that he should at least be close. The tree's where he was made it hard to see up to the clouds. If he had been a bit higher up. He surely would have seen the giant tower that was only a mile away from him, to the south.

But that wasn't the case. The tree's prevented him from seeing his destination and so instead he continued on his path, moving to the west for nearly a full day before he finally broke free of the forest.

He looked around the open area with a bit of confusion. There didn't seem to be anything here. He was starting to think Tien had lied to him. Ryu was now sure that was the case. Tien had made it pretty clear he didn't want to train him so of course it made sense for Tien to send him on a wild goose chase.

Ryu floated up into the air, intent on flying back to where he had been before. As soon as he turned though, he noticed a tower a few miles back. He wasn't sure how high it went, but he definitely couldn't see the top. "That must be it!" Ryu thought excitedly as he redirected his course and flew towards it.

When he finally reached the tower, he lowered himself to the base, wiping a thick layer of sweat off his forehead. Flying definitely still took too much out of him. If he wanted to do this tower right, it would probably be best if he rested before heading up.

He turned to look for a place to rest, seeing a small indian style teepee already set up. He casually walked up to the folding fabric doors and looked inside, seeing it empty. In the teepee, there was a small cot set up against the wall. Ryu pulled his head out of the teepee as he looked around. "Well... no one's here. Might as well take a nap." He thought with a yawn as he walked inside the teepee and lied down.

He was woken a few hours later when a spear was lightly jabbed into his chest. Not with enough force to stab him, but definitely with enough to get his attention. With a start, his eyes shot open and he tried to sit up, only to stop when he realized that the spear was still in front of him.

He followed the spear head back to it's base to see a young indian man holding onto it. The man didn't look too happy. "Um... is this your bed heh heh?" Ryu asked awkwardly, noting that the indian only glared more.

"What are you doing here?" the indian demanded.

"Well I just needed somewhere to sleep and-" Ryu began to explain, only to be cut off.

"NO! Not my tent. What are you doing in the sacred land of Korin?" the indian demanded from him yet again, gesturing fiercely with his spear.

"Well... someone told me to climb the tower... so I guess I'm here for that." Ryu wasn't too sure but he was starting to think he wasn't welcome here. Hopefully the indian wouldn't keep trying to chase him off while he was climbing up the tower.

The indian man seemed puzzled by his response. "Your friend... is his name Goku?" he asked as he face lightened.

"Well, no. His name is Tien, but he's friends with Goku." Ryu said, wondering how the indian could possibly know Goku, the champion of the 23rd world martial arts tournament.

"I see... perhaps I have misjudged you. My name is Upa. Any friend of Goku's is a friend of mine," Upa said as he withdrew his spear. Ryu decided not to comment on the fact that he himself had never met Goku, or the fact that he wasn't so sure him and Tien were friends.

Still, a calm indian was definitely a better situation than an angry one. "Hm... okay, nice to meet you I guess. My name's Ryu. Sorry to steal your room and all. I just wanted to be in top condition when I went up the tower. "Ryu said as he pushed himself up to his feet, dusting himself off a bit as he did so.

"The tower is a long journey. Very few have ever completed it. Goku did, and it took him months." Upa said calmly. Ryu's eyes widened a bit at that. "Months?" he thought with a start. "But I've only got a year. I better get started!" Ryu thought as he dashed out of the teepee and jumped onto the tower, quickly starting his climb. "Sorry I couldn't stay and talk. Thanks for the info," Ryu called down to Upa as he began his ascent.

* * *

Krillin flew through the air, mumbling all the while. He had been the last to arrive on the lookout and get filled in on the situation. It appeared not only was Goku dead, but Piccolo had kidnapped Gohan. To make matters worse, no one had told Chi-Chi yet.

Somehow, he had been elected for the task. So now here he was, flying towards a battlefield even more terrifying than the one he had found himself on a few days ago with Raditz. Chi-Chi seriously scared him. She had a temper, more mood swings than Bulma, and enough strength and training to back it up. He'd only met her maybe twice but he had a feeling that this wouldn't go over well.

With a feeling of foreboding in his stomach, he lowered himself down to the house before awkwardly knocking on the door. Instead of Chi-Chi answering, it was her father, the Ox king. The Ox king was definitely intimidating to look at, but in comparison, he was glad.

He'd much rather break the news to him than have to deal with Chi-Chi's craziness. "Oh hi Ox King. Is Chi-Chi here?" he asked nervously, his eyes darting around what he could see of the room in fear that she might be there.

"Well yes, but she's asleep. She's been out of it since Goku went to go get Gohan back from that Garlic guy." The ox king said with a small frown on his face.

Hearing this, Krillin nearly jumped for joy. "Great, well then I guess I can just tell you heh heh," Krillin started awkwardly. If he'd known that Chi-Chi had awoken and was currently standing up from the couch in the living room, only a few feet from the door, he likely would have phrased things a bit differently. Unfortunately for Krillin, he had no idea. "So, it turns out Goku's dead and Gohan's been kidnapped by Piccolo." Krillin said, enthused that he had successfully delivered the news and had managed to avoid Chi-Chi as well.

That was when the scream started. "WHAAAAAAAAAATTTT!" rung out from the living room. Within seconds, the Ox king had been bowled over and now an enraged Chi-Chi stood before him with a look in her eyes that demanded blood. Gulping, Krillin took a step back. "Looks like you're awake. Well, I should get going now heh heh" Krillin said as he took a few steps back, watching in terror as Chi-Chi took a few towards him. "That's it, this is too much!" Krillin thought as he quickly pushed off into the air, intent on flying away.

He had made it a few yards away when he heard the next scream. "Get back here Krillin!" he heard, followed by a strange whizzing sound in the air. That sound was followed by a loud clang as the heavy metal pan impacted with his head. His vision immediately went black as he fell unconscious, immediately losing the capability of flight and crashing back towards the ground.

Luckily for him, Chi-Chi too had fallen unconscious, the news finally hitting her full force and she was now slumped over in her fathers arms, unable to continue to attack him.

Krillin woke a few hours later on the couch in the Son family house. He couldn't remember what happened at all, and his head really hurt. He stumbled to his feet and made his way towards the kitchen where he could smell food cooking and walked in to see Chi-Chi making a gigantic meal.

He stiffened when he saw her. His stiffness only increased when he saw the metal pan she was cooking the food in. It appeared to have a dent in it. It was then that his mind put the pieces back together.

"She knocked me out with that pan... and now she's cooking with it!" Krillin thought as a cold chill coursed through his body, making him involuntarily shudder.

This seemed to be enough to catch Chi-Chi's attention as she turned to look over her shoulder. "Hey Krillin, she acknowledged tiredly, her usual anger seeming to have already dissipated.

"Um ya, hi heh heh heh," Krillin muttered back awkwardly. "I hope you're hungry," she said in response as she turned to the cupboard and began piling food on a plate before setting it on the table at the seat closest to him. Krillin merely nodded as he took a seat, much too hungry to pass up a home cooked meal, regardless of how scared he was.

As he started to dig in, he realized something. This was probably the best food he'd ever had. And that included restaurants. "No wonder Goku married her," he thought as he stuffed his face on the best stir fry he had ever tasted.

A couple hours later, Krillin finally said his goodbye's before flying away, headed back towards the lookout with a full stomach and a lot less stress than he had felt last time he tried to fly away. He also noticed, with no small amount of joy, that no flying metal pans had taken him out of the sky on the way out.

* * *

Gohan had had enough. Three days ago, Piccolo had abandoned him out in here, and he wasn't sure what to do. What he did know was that he was hungry, tired, and he wanted to go home.

He wanted to return back to his mother's embrace and of course see his father's happy grin. Except... he wouldn't be seeing his father even if he went home. After all, his father was dead. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't so sure his mom would want to see him.

After all, it was his fault that his father, her husband, was dead. He was still young and a lot of things still escaped his understanding, but something deep down told him that it being his fault would not be looked on kindly. If that was the case, then he'd just have to stay out here until his father came back.

"Just one year." Gohan said to himself determinedly. That was when his stomach growled again. "If I'm going to stay out here... I need to find some food," Gohan said to himself as he stood up and began to search for something, anything he could eat.

Gohan spent the day on his task, with little benefits. By the time the sun went down, he had successfully found three berries, two apples and what appeared to be a pear, though it appeared upside down, with the larger part being on the top with the stem. It was definitely not enough to fill him up, but Gohan definitely felt better with some kind of nourishment inside of him, especially after an unexpected three day fast.

From afar, Piccolo watched intently. Until today, the boy had done nothing but cry. He had been close to giving up on him and leaving him here when the boy had started searching. At first, Piccolo had been confused as to what Gohan could have been looking for.

It was when Gohan had entered a small crevasse and escaped his site, only to return with a small handful of berries that Piccolo began to understand. "Hn, looks like the brat's hungry," Piccolo muttered to himself, mentally chastising himself for forgetting the fact that kid's, and really everyone besides him, had to eat. It was an easy mistake to make. He personally only took in water to survive. Food was never a concern for him. Combine that with the fact that he never, ever, entertained guests where he was, or even had any contact with people, and it was no surprise that such a small detail such as food would slip his mind.

Still, it looked like the kid had done alright for himself. For now, he'd just have to watch, and hope the kid continued to improve. The sooner the kid was able to prove he could survive in the wild, the sooner he could start training the boy for real. Deciding that the boy had done well enough for the day, Piccolo turned and, with a grunt, flew off to another part of the mountains to continue his own training.

* * *

Gohan was scared, confused, angry, hungry; really, just emotional. He wasn't sure what emotion was strongest right now. What he did know was that having a giant tyrannosaurus chasing him away from the only food he'd managed to gather so far was not a good thing.

That on it's own might not have been too bad. But things only seemed to be getting worse for him. At some point during his escape, he must have blacked out. At least, he was pretty sure that was what happened.

After all, how else does one explain him waking up on the top of a giant mountain with no way down. He had already spent an hour or two trying to find a way down but the cliffs were far too steep. Even if he could find a spot to start climbing, it just seemed dangerous. Young Gohan was stumped. His mother had always taught him to be a problem solver. To break down the problem into small, manageable portions, and Gohan was trying to do just that.

But no matter how he looked at it, the situation he was in was definitely undesirable. Still, he was sure there had to be something he could do. After all, he must have gotten up there somehow, and that had to mean there was a way down.

For hours, Gohan lay there, considering this very fact. Day became night and with it, the sun was replaced by the moon. It was a large moon, one might say a full moon. For Gohan, it was an amazing sight. His mother always had him stay inside on full moon nights. This was his first time seeing it and he had to admit it was breath taking.

He was so enraptured by the site that he barely noticed as his consciousness began to fade away and his clothes began to tear off of him. No, for Gohan, he might as well have been asleep, for he knew nothing of what was happening to him.

As for Piccolo, who had been a few miles away meditating, the appearance of a giant ape like monster was significantly hard to miss.

Piccolo quickly rushed to the scene, mentally noting that the beast was dangerously close to where he had left Gohan the day before. His first action was to send a strong ki blast into the back of the creature's head.

The beast merely stiffened at the motion before turning towards him swatting him away as if he were a fly. Currently, Piccolo definitely felt like a fly. The one hit had completely caved in his chest, and his arm was bent at an awkward angle under him.

"What is this monster?" Piccolo thought as a sense of fear passed over him. It was now completely possible that he could die before these saiyans even arrived. "Of course!" Piccolo thought as his mind began to make the connections. "The tail. This must be some sort of saiyan transformation. So that beast must be Gohan." Piccolo muttered to himself as he pushed himself to his feet, forcing large amounts of ki through himself in an effort to restore his bodily functions.

Floating into the air in front of the beast, while still holding his right arm which was still bent out to the side, Piccolo roared out Gohan's name. His hope was that the boy would recognize him and calm down. Instead, it seemed the beast took it as a challenge.

Gohan began to beat on his chest, howling all the while as he stared up to the moon and began stomping to a rhythm Piccolo definitely couldn't hear.

At first, Piccolo was at a loss. Obviously talking to him wasn't going to accomplish anything, and Piccolo felt that trying to fight the beast seriously would be a mistake as well. "There has to be something I can do," Piccolo, with gritted teeth, growled out. It was then that he noticed what Gohan was staring at. "The moon! That has to be it!"

Before Piccolo could react to this new information a large shadow encompassed his view. The next second was a mixture of pain and confusion as the gigantic hand slammed him into the ground, crushing him deep into a crater. With a moan of pain, Piccolo quickly drew all his mental focus together in an attempt to regain control of the situation.

It was a good thing he did so, as the second fist was already closing in on his damaged body. Piccolo pushed himself away from the attack, ignoring the scream of agony that coursed through his body upon moving beyond his limits. Piccolo was given little time to think on this as yet another fist came down towards him.

This one Piccolo managed to just barely jump over. The fist itself missed, but the mere pressure from the swing was enough to throw him off balance, sending him spiraling down back to the ground where he rolled once, ending up on his stomach, in immense pain.

"I need to focus... I'm only going to get one chance at this." Piccolo grunted out while breathing heavily. His head was already spinning. Even one more glancing blow like the last one might be enough to put him down for good. Knowing this, Piccolo did what he felt was his only option. When Gohan reached down for him again, Piccolo dashed between his legs before immediately rising up past Gohan's head so that he was facing the moon. He hoped the beast would lose track of him for at least a few seconds. He would need at least that long if he planned on gathering enough ki to do what he intended.

Luckily, Gohan gave him just that. The great ape searched around for his target in confusion, unable to grasp what had happened. It wasn't until the being breathed in deep with his nose that it caught the scent.

It spun around, intent on crushing Piccolo between it's two giant hands, only to see a large blast headed up towards the sky, followed by a massive explosion.

When the explosion ended, the ape suddenly felt dizzy. Its' hands fell to its' side and the beast began to sway back and forth before starting to shrink down. It wasn't long before the great ape was replaced by a small naked boy, lying face down on his stomach.

Floating down cautiously, Piccolo stared down at the boy. That was twice now that the boy had found a way to become stronger than him. It was beginning to feel dangerous training the boy. After all, Gohan was still the son of Goku, and Goku was still his enemy. A part of him was tempted to end the boys life there. But of course, the more logical side of him realized that if he were to do so, the saiyan's would become an insurmountable obstacle.

No, the boy was needed, alive, for now. Piccolo's eye's then traced down to the tail sticking out of the Gohan's low back. Piccolo reached forward, taking a firm grasp of it before yanking up, tearing the tail right off. "This is just more trouble than it's worth," He muttered as his eyes began to glow.

His eyes torched the tail, sending it out of existence. Piccolo, his eye's still glowing, then turned to look at the unconscious Gohan. Once more, his eyes shot out a beam. This one however bore no ill will.

When the light faded, Gohan was revealed to be in a gi similar to his father's, except with one small difference. The kanji on the back didn't support the Turtle Hermit. Instead, the kanji signified Gohan as a student of the demon. "Hn, that'll do I guess." Piccolo said before blasting Gohan once more, this time creating a small sword, which was connected to Gohan by a shoulder strap. "Hn, the kid still has a ways to go. Hopefully this will speed things up," Piccolo thought as he turned to fly away, sparing one last glance at the boy before dashing off into the sky.

* * *

Author's Notes.

Well, it's pretty obvious I've pissed everyone off with the inclusion or Ryu. Sorry no one is a fan. But seriously, he's one human. How exactly is that a Mary Sue character? You people do realize that, as a human, he will be completely outdated by the time we leave Frieza saga right? If it's enough for you not to read then I'm sorry my story didn't play out the way you wanted. But Ryu is a part of this story, so learn to deal with it. I'll be writing whether you people like it or not. Having fans will definitely cut down on the time between updates, but It will be happening either way.

Power Levels:

Gohan (great ape/Oozaru): 12000

Chi-Chi: 93

Upa: 47


	6. Three Months

Disclaimer: Still don't own DBZ, or any variant of it

Chapter 6 Three Months

Goku felt like he'd been running on Snake Way forever. Truthfully, it had been a bit over two weeks. But that was two weeks with literally no breaks. He had been sustaining a steady pace up till now, and it was starting to dawn on him that he hadn't really understood how long Kami had told him Snake way was.

Surprisingly, Goku wasn't hungry, though he no doubt would have devoured food if someone put it near him. To be more precise, it wasn't so much that he wasn't hungry. He had a nagging feeling in his stomach telling him he should eat. But that's all it was. Due to him being dead, his body didn't actually require any nutrition.

The nutrition could be used as a quick boost of energy, sure, so eating wasn't completely useless in Other World, but it generally wasn't necessary for life in, well, the afterlife. As such, their afterlife bodies did not suffer from problems like hunger, considering food was totally irrelevant.

For Goku, who's biggest weakness growing up was his appetite draining his energy, the whole experience was very confusing. Every time he tried to think about it more, the more his mind escaped to the thought of food.

Not because his body was demanding substance to sate his appetite, but because, well, he was Goku, and there was nothing he loved more than food, except training. Still, the thought of food began to distract him from his earlier thoughts of exhaustion, and so, with renewed energy, Goku continued his run, lost in the thoughts of food. Dinner favorites like the giant fish from the mountain he had lived on his whole life, or giant steaks, with lots of barbecue and rice sifted through his brain, each meal taking nearly all his focus for minutes at a time.

After hours more of running, totally engrossed in his latest thought, which had moved on to dessert, picturing one of Chi-Chi's famous pies, the steam still rising from the freshly baked dish. Goku felt he could almost smell the sweet smoke. Goku couldn't help but inhale with his nose, trying to draw in all the fake smoke he could.

Suddenly, Goku noticed something. He quickly opened his eyes, which had been closed for the last hour or so while he ran, and looked around. His nose didn't often lie to him. The food he was smelling, it was there.

"It wasn't a dream... right?" Goku thought swinging his head around in an attempt to find what he thought he smelled. It was then that his eyes settled on a large, two fold door, with Snake like architecture seeming to be the theme.

One of the folds had been left slightly ajar, and there was a familiar smoke wafting from behind the door. Excitedly, Goku rushed towards the entrance, peeking his head inside the gap.

What he saw was enough to nearly blow him away, after his two weeks of seeing nothing but road. The inside was decorated like a palace. What really drew his attention though, was the dining table spread out in the center of the room.

That dining table, which appeared to be see through glass, was covered, from one end to the other with food. All kinds of food. It was exactly what he had been dreaming of. Quickly, Goku pinched himself to make sure this wasn't all a dream. "Yeowch. That hurt!" Goku exclaimed after pinching his arm.

It was then that he noticed the two women walking towards him. Their skin was a light shade of green. One had long red hair, while the other had a dark shade of blue. "Princess Snake has been expecting you, oh traveler," The one with dark blue hair began, her voice silky smooth, taking on a snake like undertone.

"This feast has been prepared solely for you," the women with red hair finished, gesturing towards the gigantic buffet of food that Goku had obviously already been looking at.

Goku looked towards the woman with a stunned look on his face, before slowly turning towards the buffet. As soon as his eye's landed on the table, and saw all the food for him, his silence was broken and Goku yelled excitedly as he rushed up to the table, starting to devour everything on it.

He hadn't noticed, due to his eating, but a third woman had just entered the room. She too had light green skin, but she had bright orange, puffy hair. She was also decorated a bit fancier than the rest of the women. This was Princess Snake.

She watched the newcomer, Goku, devour the food in front of him and licked her lips. She couldn't wait until it was her turn to eat. She intended to eat as vigorously as the saiyan before her currently was. Silently, she took a seat at the edge of the table, watching with fascination as Goku devoured plate after plate of food.

It was nearly ten minutes before Goku looked up, having finally finished the last of the plates. He was immensely surprised to notice the new woman, casually sitting in the chair, staring straight back at him. With a gulp, Goku moved to introduce himself, only to be cut off by the woman beginning to clap.

The clapping continued as Goku blinked, once, twice. He couldn't figure out what there was to celebrate. It was then that the woman began to speak. "You have such an appetite. It is surely a sight to behold. I trust you enjoyed the food I laid out for you?" Princess Snake said in such a way that indicated she already knew the answer, a knowing smile gracing her inhuman features.

Goku merely nodded. "You did this? Thank you. It was really good. It was really nice of you to cook for me," Goku said happily as he stood. "But I should go. I still have more training to do." He said as he turned to run.

"Not so fast!" Princess Snake called out, a hint of venom in her voice. Goku quickly turned, but the venom was gone. Instead, the princess was smiling once more.

"You simply must enjoy the hot springs before you go. They are to die for," the princess said, starting to laugh to herself for a second, only stopping when she realized Goku could still hear her.

A few minutes later and Goku found himself relaxing in the best hot spring he had ever felt. The water was really nice, though he probably could have dealt with warmer and been content. He felt like all his muscles were all relaxing at once. He felt like he could just melt away.

Goku relaxed in the water for almost an hour before finally standing up, noticing Princess Snake wasn't too far away. "Was the water to your liking?" The princess asked, her knowing smile still in place on her face.

Goku smiled at the princess, whom had been so kind to him, and nodded happily. "I'm thankful for all you've done," Goku said with a half bow, before slipping his clothes back on, not noticing the disappointed look the princess displayed as he covered up. "But I need to get going now. I still have a long way to go, and not very much time. Everyone's counting on me." Goku said as he slipped his last boot on, flexing a bit to get comfortable.

"Hm, I see, well, that's a bit of a problem isn't it?" Princess Snake said with her smile still on her face. "You see, I still haven't gotten to eat my dinner," she said as her smile slowly started to fade. Goku was not really sure what to say to that. He was even less sure what he was supposed to do when princess Snake suddenly began to transform before his eyes, almost as if she was shedding her skin.

Her womanly body melted away to be replaced by the visage of a gigantic snake. The princess then shot forward, coiling her body in an effort to launch faster, her open mouth gleaming sharp snake fangs.

Goku, despite harboring some confusion about the situation, easily turned his body to the side, letting the princess pass by him. The princess refused to give up however, and continued trying to attack Goku, intent on devouring him whole.

Goku, still seemed unperturbed though, and casually moved around the princess, all the while trying to convince her to stop. This exchange lasted for a few minutes, before things took an unexpected turn for Princess Snake.

She shot forwards towards Goku for what felt like the hundredth time, feeling that this time she was close enough to connect. She was only inches away from him and he didn't seem to notice she was there, when suddenly something stopped her in her tracks.

It felt like something was pulling her back, holding her in place. But that was impossible! There was no one that could hold her, the mighty and elegant Princess Snake in place. And besides that, there wasn't anyone else around.

Angrily, the princess spun her head around in an attempt to see who would dare touch her, only to see that the culprit... was her. Goku had maneuvered her around in such a way that her own body had looped around itself, locking her in a pretzel shape, and preventing her from continuing her attack. The worst part was that she had never seen it coming.

As far as she had been able to tell, the man in front of her had been desperately dodging her. She had felt that she had been slowly draining away his energy, and had been so sure of her victory. Instead, she found herself in this humiliating situation. With a hiss of anger, she turned back towards Goku.

"Hey, so it was fun and all, but I really need to get going now. Thanks for the food. Maybe next time you can try not eating your guests though. Bye!" Goku said with a happy wave as he flew off further down Snake Way, moving at a much faster pace after having regained his energy through rest. "Wow, I feel so much stronger already." Goku said aloud as he continued his run.

* * *

"Hah hah, you missed!" Gohan said excitedly, sticking his tongue out at the dinosaur that had just taken a lunge at him.

The last three months had been an amazing experience for Gohan. When he had first arrived in the wilderness, this very dinosaur had nearly killed him. Now it was a simple task to dodge the bulky beast's blundering attacks.

Throwing his small leg out, Gohan struck the dinosaur on it's tail, watching with some satisfaction as the beast began to quickly retreat, finding it's prey much more capable than it had planned. With a smile, Gohan followed the beast, starting his own game in which he would disappear from the beast's view only to reappear from a blind spot in an attempt to startle the beast.

It was a simple enough game of hide and seek, as far as Gohan was concerned. Piccolo of course, saw the game differently. "He's moving around in such a way as to exploit that beast's every blind spot. Despite their speed being about the same right now, Gohan is using his other advantages to their full advantage. Hn, and he's playing mind games with a dinosaur. I'll bet that beast will be a lot more submissive after this." Piccolo thought as he watched the scene from a distance, grinning all the while.

Gohan was definitely progressing faster than he had expected. Despite showing no fighting instinct to start with, the boy was continuing to improve on a near daily basis. If things kept up as they were, he could start training Gohan a few months earlier than expected. "I'd say another month before he's ready to start," Piccolo muttered to himself before nodding.

"I suppose I should get started." he said before flying a decent distance away and concentrating, gathering ki for one of his many techniques.

He started his training off by mentally lifting three pyramids up around him, letting them float around him in a constant circular motion. He then split his focus, as well as his body, with the multi-form technique.

His copy lunged towards him with an outstretched claw. Piccolo barely dodged the attack before rising his knee up, slamming it into his clone's side before clasping his hands together and striking down on his back with force.

Rather than impacting a body though, he met only an after image. The next second, a hand had wrapped around his leg and began to pull him down towards the ground. Turning his body to see the hand, Piccolo saw his clone on the ground, his arm outstretched.

Piccolo quickly charged a ki blast and fired it towards his clone, who was now left with a decision of either maintaining his grasp on Piccolo, or dodging the ki blast.

The clone chose the latter. His connection broke as he jumped into the air in order to dodge the blast. The blast suddenly turned however, beginning to follow the clone into the air. At the last second, the clone fired his own blast downwards, impacting with the first attack.

The ensuing explosion pushed both Piccolo's backwards, head over heels, as well as creating a dust cloud. With vision no longer a factor, both of the combatants turned to their other senses.

Within seconds, they had picked up the easily discernible power levels. The clone rushed forward into the dust cloud, throwing a kick towards where his senses told him that the original was.

At the last second before impact, Piccolo suddenly leaned backwards, letting the kick sail over his head before striking with his own kick, sending the clone flying up and out of the dust cloud. He then moved forwards at near full speed in order to pass his clone in ascent. Finding his new location above his clone preferable, Piccolo struck downwards with a devastating elbow, sending the clone slamming back down into the ground, narrowly missing impacting with one of the pyramids, which were still being held in rotation by Piccolo through telekinesis.

Piccolo rushed towards the ground, planning on driving a knee into his downed opponent, only to be forced to jerk to the side as a powerful ki blast shot straight upwards from his clones location. The force of the attack was enough to slow him down, causing him to lose his opening.

Swinging his head around towards the ground again, Piccolo realized he had lost track of his clone again. Before he could open his senses to find his opponent, a whoosh of air on his left caught his attention.

He quickly raised his left arm, blocking a swift kick aimed straight towards his head. He countered by spinning around, throwing a hook kick towards his opponents exposed side, only to hit an afterimage.

His clone rushed in with a right handed chop, but he too hit an afterimage. For about ten strikes, this pattern continued, until Piccolo decided to change his method of attack, choosing to take an example from Gohan's earlier actions.

After dodging another strike, Piccolo dropped down, disappearing from view by use of the floating pyramid. He patiently waited for his clone to lower his guard before rushing in from a blind spot and landing a heavy blow to his clone's back, stunning the clone for a second. Rather than continuing his attack, Piccolo once again disappeared behind the pyramids and began to bide his time, striking only when he was fully hidden.

He was able to land about five good strikes before his clone caught on to the pattern. With an exertion of ki, the clone sent the pyramids flying, sending them away from the battlefield and exposing Piccolo, who was left like a deer in the headlights as his cover was forcibly removed from him.

The clone rushed in and immediately pushed Piccolo on the defensive.

The constant attacks prevented Piccolo from creating any openings, and so all he could do was block, and sway away from the attacks, waiting for an opportunity. Finally, one presented itself.

His clone threw a roundhouse kick with a bit more of a buildup than the last few moves. Piccolo dodged the attack before landing an elbow on the exposed limb, bringing his attack down on top of his clone's knee.

With a resounding crack, the knee shattered and the clone instinctively moved in an attempt to grab the damaged limb. Piccolo didn't give him a chance. A second strike hit the clone's exposed stomach, followed by a third, a fourth, a fifth, and finally a devastating kick, sending his clone towards the ground.

As soon as he connected his attack, Piccolo moved his hands in front and began to charge up ki. Right when his clone hit the ground, Piccolo fired.

"Masenko!" he roared as the bright yellow blast overcame his injured clone's form. Exhausted, Piccolo slowly lowered his floating form to the ground, taking in deep, measured breaths in order to regain lost stamina.

After a few minutes of rest, Piccolo once again summoned his clone and began to repeat the training process.

* * *

Yajirobe had never felt so exhausted. For the last three months, he had been stuck on Kami's lookout with the craziest people he'd ever met, well, besides Goku.

How could anyone like being put through training this intense? It just didn't make sense to him. The other three warriors, Tien, Krillin and Chiaotzu had embraced the challenging training happily, actively pushing themselves on a daily basis in order to improve.

When they had started, he'd been almost as strong as Krillin. Now though, he was on a losing streak of nine losses and one tie against Chiaotzu. He just couldn't understand where they could get their energy.

Their motivation and drive seemed to be limitless, whereas he could barely deal with the fact he had to get up early to train everyday. Still, he was there, and struggling onward. He couldn't deny that he was stronger than when he arrived.

He wasn't progressing as fast as the others, but Yajirobe was no fool. You get what you put in, and to be honest, he didn't feel like putting in anywhere near as much effort as the others.

Both Tien and Krillin stood facing each other. They had spent the last hour or so sparring against each other, and so far it had appeared to be an even match up. For every uncanny technique Tien pulled out, Krillin would find a way to adapt and counter, sometimes through forceful strikes, and sometimes through well manipulated ki.

Both were beginning to run low on strategic strikes, considering they had been fighting each other daily for three months straight, not to mention the 3 years they had spent traveling together; and thus knew each others fighting styles and ways of thinking almost as well as they knew their own.

Their deadlock ended finally when a small rock flew between them, courtesy of Chiaotzu's own training on the other side of the lookout, momentarily drawing their attention away from each other. Of course, Tien had an advantage. His first two eyes followed the rock, but his third eye continued staring Krillin down. When he saw Krillin's gaze flicker for a second, he made his move.

Rushing forward, he quickly planted an open palm onto Krillin's exposed stomach, causing the young monk's body's diaphragm to temporarily collapse under the strain. Tien wasn't done just yet though. Pivoting on his front leg, he turned the palm upside down and brought it up into Krillin's exposed jaw, sending his training partner flying backwards.

He rushed in, intending to continue the attack, but as he closed the gap, Krillin suddenly flipped forward, his heel slamming down onto Tien's head and pushing him down towards the ground. Before Tien could impact the ground though, he felt Krillin's hand latch onto his leg, swinging him back the other direction.

Realizing where Krillin intended on throwing him, Tien prepared, coiling his muscles to absorb the impact. When Krillin moved to release Tien's body, which was set to fly into one of the smaller temples, Tien acted.

Planting his hands on the temple, Tien began to walk forward, despite Krillin's hold, until he was at a better vantage point.

He then kicked his leg forward, hooking it around a surprised Krillin and launching him directly downwards. Krillin, this time, was caught completely off guard by the unorthodox tactics of his training partner. As such, he was unable to stop his body's descent towards the ground.

With a loud crash, his body slammed into the marble lookout, his head connecting with the ground first. Tien moved to continue his attack, but pulled away at the last second, instead landing on the ground next to Krillin, when he realized the monk had yet to move from his spot.

A feeling of worry washed over him, and he moved forwards to check on the young monk. Before he could get close enough to see, Krillin slowly began to move. His first action was to push himself up onto his hands and knees. For a second, it looked like Krillin would try to push himself to his feet, but instead, he turned his body so that he was lying on his back.

Krillin took a few seconds to catch his breath before turning his head to look at Tien. Tien looked back with a hard stare. Slowly but surely, the stare turned into a grin, one matched on Krillin's face as well.

They then started laughing, practically hysterically, as Tien too slumped to the ground, lying down next to Krillin. "You know Tien, you never cease to amaze me. I totally thought I had you and then bam, I'm out!" exclaimed Krillin excitedly.

Tien just continued to grin back, nodding in agreement. "I could say the same about you. That heel to the head caught me totally off guard." Tien said, enjoying the verbal exchange with his training partner. The two bald warriors spent a few minutes resting and relaxing after their grueling spar.

After a few minutes, their carefree conversation was interrupted by the approaching Kami. "I am sorry to disturb you on your... training," Kami said with a slight frown.

Time was of the essence. He didn't feel that lying down was very conductive to their improvement. He understood the need to recover, but the two fighters seemed to still be capable of continuing.

Still, he chose not to comment. These two, despite this singular circumstance, had been consistent in their training, making steady, though perhaps insufficient progress.

That was more than he could say for the fatter warrior, Yajirobe. He could see bounds of potential inside the short swordsman, but the lack of dedication on the samurai's part meant that the potential was being wasted.

It was a pity, Kami felt, as the swordsman, had his focus been unwavering, was capable of reaching a higher power level than he felt any of the others were up to reaching in the short time they had to prepare.

Turning his attention back to the two warriors in front of him, who were now staring at him intently, giving him the respect they felt he deserved as their martial arts master, Kami began to speak.

"I came to inform you, Tien, that the boy Ryu has reached Korin's tower. It seems he still has some work to do before he will be capable of completing the training." Kami said calmly before turning and walking away.

Tien, smiled at that. "Good for him." he muttered as he pushed himself to his feet, holding out a hand to help Krillin up as well. Krillin happily reached up and completed the gesture, standing to his feet.

It was then that his stomach growled. For a human, it was a decent rumbling, but the two warriors only started to laugh, thinking about their friend Goku; whom they had both decided was still a friend, despite learning of his alien nature, and the many times his stomach had growled out, at a tone quite a bit louder than was capable for them.

"Well, what do you say we find some food?" Tien asked with a grin as he and Krillin turned to head towards one of the smaller temples where they knew food had been set aside for them by the ever diligent Mr. Popo

* * *

"Is, is that what I think it is?" a tired voice muttered out as he looked upwards. Ryu had been climbing for what felt like forever.

His body was so sore that he had started to go numb. Yet, he had refused to give up. He had kept up a slow, but steady pace on his ascent, thanking the gods that he had brought some small rations with him on his trek.

They had been finished off well over a week beforehand, but it had given him the energy he had needed to keep moving, and now, it seemed that his hard work had paid off.

Above him, no more than a mile away, he could see the end of the tower, and the beginning of the platform he had been told laid at the top. It was hard to make out the details, due to the late night, and the cloud cover, but he was sure that's what it was.

Excitedly, Ryu began to push his exhausted body up the tower at a pace he hadn't kept since day one. He was only a few feet away from the top when his hand slipped off of one of the crumbling tower pieces, causing him to begin to fall backwards.

Panicking, Ryu scrambled to catch his hold again, barely managing to grasp onto the outreaching ledge with only two fingers. Two fingers that were already beginning to slip from the effort of holding his drained body up. He quickly threw his other arm back up, catching his grip and then pulling himself up, staying there for a second in an effort to catch his breath and rest, if only a little.

Finally, Ryu found the energy needed to finish his journey, pulling himself over the ledge and into the tower. Looking around with a sense of wonder, Ryu began exploring his new location.

Suddenly, something glinted from across the room, catching his attention. He began to walk towards it curiously. Suddenly, something swept his legs out from under him, causing him to stumble forward, only barely catching his balance before flipping over the rail. Turning around in bewilderment, Ryu searched for the culprit.

What he saw was a fat white cat, lying on the floor, an aged walking stick held in it's paws. "You know, you should really work on your balance," he cat said, a playful tune to his voice.

Ryu only blinked in confusion. "Um... are you Korin?" he asked.

"Yep, the one and only," the cat said as he stood up to his feet, looking at the young man before him. "And you're Ryu. I've been expecting you. Though, based on what Tien told me, I thought you'd be here sooner." Korin said, a note of disappointment in his voice.

"You talked to Tien? What did he say about me?" Ryu asked excitedly, enthused that his idol seemed to have good things to say about him.

"Hm, nothing much. He told me you were on the way up though. He wouldn't have done that if he didn't think you would make it to the top. "Korin said, his eye's still closed.

Despite that, Ryu felt that the cat was watching him very closely, evaluating him to see whether he was worth training. "Well, since you took so long, I guess that means we're behind schedule," Korin began before abruptly walking away, heading up the ladder in the center of the room, only to emerge a few seconds later, holding a small pot of water on the end of his cane.

"Inside this pot is the divine water. With only one drink, your power will more than double." Korin said as he held the pot towards Ryu, who reached towards it excitedly.

At the last second, Korin suddenly jumped up, planting his feet on Ryu's face and pushing off, back flipping away and landing on the railing.

Ryu, having been caught off guard, fell backwards, rolling with the fall at the last second and managing to get back to his feet. "Hey! What gives?" Ryu asked angrily.

"Hah, I never said I would just give you the water. You're task is to take it from me. Now come and get it!" Korin called out as he jumped off the railing and over Ryu's head.

Ryu turned to try and catch him, only to feel the wooden staff connect with his leg once again. This time a bit more prepared, Ryu managed to jump before the staff could sweep him down again.

He then turned towards where the staff had hit him, only to find his new trainer had disappeared. He quickly glanced around the room, trying to understand what had happened. Suddenly, he realized the extra pressure on the top of his head and reached up.

Korin flipped off of his head, narrowly avoiding the approaching hand, and turned to face Ryu again. "You missed!" Korin called out as Ryu tried again to grab him, this time leaping forward in an attempt to catch the lithe cat, only to pass through an afterimage.

"Are you even trying?" the cat called out from the other side of the room.

"Damn it, I'll catch you!" Ryu called out as he spun around, trying again to catch his new master.

* * *

Raditz groggily opened his eyes, his space pod having indicated a successful landing on the outlying Frieza planet.

With the push of a button, the door slowly opened up, revealing the small, outdated space station that he had landed at. Immediately, two soldiers, wearing the standard battle armor, rushed to his capsule, watching with awe as he pulled himself out of his space pod with one arm.

The emergency support system had held the damaged saiyan together while he was moving, but now, without it, the severity of his wounds was once more making itself known.

His stomach had already started to bleed once more, and his stump of an arm was dripping red hot liquid onto the metal ground.

The soldiers, having never been in any real battle, had never seen injuries to this extent and were unsure of what to make of it. Finally, one of the two seemed to catch on and immediately pulled out a radio, calling for a stretcher to bring the injured saiyan to the medical bay.

Raditz looked up towards the two in front of him, his vision fading, even as he tried to focus. When he saw one of the soldiers nod at him and crack a half smile, Raditz smiled back, if only halfheartedly, before slumping to the ground, passing out from the wounds.

It wasn't long before the stretcher arrived and the two piled the injured saiyan onto it, quickly taking him the med bay and transferring him into the healing machine. Theirs was an older model, and as such, it would take at least a few days to be able to heal the saiyan currently held inside.

Already, the news of his arrival had spread through the compound, and with it, a wide variety of rumors. Many wondered why this saiyan was traveling alone. It was common knowledge, even to them, that the only three remaining saiyans traveled together in their purges.

For only one to arrive anywhere was unheard of. Not knowing the full situation, the commander of the base was forced to wait for the saiyan to wake up and explain himself.

He considered calling Lord Frieza himself to report the arrival of the saiyan, but decided against it. Frieza would likely not care about the presence of the low class saiyan Raditz. If it had been Vegeta, the young prince, he felt that would have been a different story. Even he knew of the favoritism that Frieza held for his personal pet monkey.

Another thought crossed his mind that perhaps he should try to contact Vegeta to inform him of his subordinates arrival. But, with no idea how to get a hold of the saiyan prince, that idea too was tossed aside.

* * *

And there is the end of the chapter. I actually had it finished back on the 31st, and could have posted in time for New Years, but I never got around to it. Besides, who would stop their new years celebration to read fanfiction? No real loss with it being a few days later. I'm not going to post any power levels this chapter because nothing has really come up besides training. I'll just say that at this point, pretty much everyone should have at least doubled their power level by now, some with more progress than others. I'm going to try to keep this to a once a month update schedule, which this one would have fallen under if I had uploaded it on time. Sorry about the wait by the way. My computer room was temporarily occupied by some of my friends while they were in town for the holidays. It made getting any work done very difficult. They're gone now, so it should move back to a normal pace.


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